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The Hunts of the United States and Canada 



THIS EDITION. ON LAID PAPER. 
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES 




i 



^ I 



J.\> 






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THE 

HUNTS 

OF 

THE UNITED STATES 
AND CANADA 

THEIR MASTERS, HOUNDS AND HISTORIES 

Br 
A. HENRY HIGGINSON, M. F. H. 

AND 

JULIAN INGERSOLL CHAMBERLAIN 



BOSTON 

FRANK L. WILES 

1908 



^^' 






Two Copies Kva .;vee i 

HOy !c! 19081 






COPYRIGHT. 1908. BY 
A. HENRY HIGGINSON 



Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England 
All TighU raeroed 



Typography and Prasmork iy 
LOUIS E. CROSSCUP & CO., Botion. M» 



TO 

"THE DEAN OF AMERICAN FOX-HUNTING " 

MAJOR WILLIAM AUSTIN WADSWORTH. M. F. H. 

WHO. 

DURING HIS THIRTY-TWO YEARS' MASTERSHIP OF HIS OWN PACK. 
HAS SET A HIGH STANDARD FOR THE RISING GENERATION. 



Preface 



T 



O THE Masters of the United States and Canada and 
TO THE Readers of this Volume : — 



Some years ago, the perusal of a book edited by Sir Hum- 
phrey F. de Trafford, Bart., entitled " The Foxhounds of Great Britain and 
Ireland," led the authors of this volume to think that a similar publication, 
which would tell the histories of the packs of the Western Hemisphere, 
would be welcomed as supplying a chapter heretofore lacking in the annals 
of the sport, and serve to bring the hunting men and women of both 
countries into closer touch v^ath one another. 

From Oregon to Virginia is a far cry, and no one who has not come in 
personal contact, as it were, with the Hunts throughout the country can re- 
alize the difficulty of getting together the material for this book. Most of 
the packs have been in existence a comparatively short time and many of 
them have kept no records at all. Up to the present time no accurate list 
even of the Hunts and their Masters has been extant, and though data con- 
cerning the more important ones have been published from time to time, they 
were so fragmentary that the authors venture to hope that this volume vnW 
prove useful to their fellow sportsmen throughout the country. 

We wish to take this opportunity to thank the Masters of Hounds of 
America and also the Hunt Secretaries who have, almost without exception, 
co-operated with us by sending data and photographs and by re-reading and 
correcting their respective articles before they were sent to press. We wish 
also to tender our gratitude to the following authors from whose writings we 
have drawn much useful information : — 

Mr. Ralph N. Ellis, late Master of the Meadow Brook, for his article in 
" The Book of Sport," published by Messrs. J. F. Taylor & Co., Mr. George 
E. Darlington, from whose volume, " Fox Hunting in Delaware County, Penn- 
sylvania," many important items have been gleaned. Captain E. Pennell-Elm- 
hirst (" Brooksby " ) for his chapter in " The Best of the Fun," on the Meadow 



PREFACE 

Brook in the old days, and Mr. Allen Potts, Editor of the Richmond Times- 
Dispatch, for much information about the southern Hunts. 

In addition to these, our cordial thanks are due to the following gentlemen 
for assistance cheerfully given: — 

Dr. Charles McEachran, late Master of the Montreal, who, together with 
its present Master, has aided us in compiling the history of that oldest of 
American Hunts, Mr. Hugh Allan and Mr. Frank Seabury, late Masters 
of the Myopia, for valuable information of its early days, Mr. J. L. Randall 
for his poem, " The Goose with the Golden Eggs," which appeared in "The 
History of the Meynell Hounds and Country," published by Messrs. Samp- 
son Low, Marston & Co., Mr. Charles Hopkinson and Mr. Richard 
Newton, Jr., M. F. H., for their permission to reproduce portraits painted 
by them and, finally, to Messrs. J. E. Green, A. F. Bradley and W. N. 
Jennings for the use of valuable sporting photographs. 

We would add that in the few instances where no photograph of either 
the Master of a pack or of his Huntsman appears, the omission is due solely 
to that Master himself, every opportunity having been afforded him to fur- 
nish the necessary portraits for reproduction in these pages. If any Hunt 
has been omitted from this volume it is for the same reason, but the authors 
feel that in giving it to the public they are offering the only accurate publi- 
cation of its kind in America. 

In conclusion the authors, both being hunting men, feel that if their fellow 
fox-hunters derive half as much pleasure out of the reading of this book as 
they have in the writing of it, they will rest content. 

A. HENRY HIGGINSON. 

JULIAN INGERSOLL CHAMBERLAIN. 

South Lincoln, Mass.. 1908. 



Note : The change in the name of the Charlottesville Hunt to the Albemarle County Hunt, recently 
made, occurred too late to be noted in the chapter on that organization. 



Contents 



Preface VII 

Introduction ........... XVII 

TTie Berkshire Hunt .......... I 

The Blackstone Valley Hunt ........ 4 

The Blue Ridge Hunt 6 

The Blue Run Hunt 8 

The Brandywine Hounds ......... 1 

The Castle Hill Hounds 15 

The Charlottesville Hunt .......... 17 

The Chester Valley Hunt 19 

TTie Chevy Chase Hunt . . . . . . . .21 

The Deep Run Hunt 25 

The Elkridge Hunt 28 

The Endean Beagles .......... 31 

The Essex Hounds .......... 33 

The Genesee Valley Hunt ......... 36 

The Grafton Hounds .......... 43 

The Green River Hunt ..'...... 48 

The Green Spring Valley Hunt ........ 50 

The Harkaway Hunt .......... 55 

The Iroquois Hunt ........... 57 

The Keswick Hunt 59 

The Lima Hunt ........... 62 

The London Hunt .......... 64 

The Loudoun County Hunt ......... 67 

The Meadow Brook Hunt 72 

The Middleburg Hunt 81 

The Middlesex Foxhounds ......... 83 

The Midlothian Hunt Club 89 

The Millbrook Hunt 91 

The Millwood and Owl's Nest Hounds 93 

The Missouri Hunt and Polo Club 97 

The Monmouth County Hunt ._ . . . ' . . .100 

The Montreal Hunt . . " 103 



CONTENTS 

Mr. Hitchcock's Hounds 113 

Mr. Maddux's Hounds H 7 

Mr. Okie's Hounds 119 

The Myopia Hunt 121 

The Norfolk Hunt 127 

The Oak Ridge Hunt Club 131 

The Onwentsia Hunt . . . . . . . . • . 1 34 

The Orange County Hunt . . 137 

The Patapsco Hunt 140 

The Piedmont Hunt 144 

The Portland Hunt Club 146 

The Portsmouth Hunt 1 48 

The Radnor Hunt 150 

The Riverside Hunt . . . 157 

The Rose Tree Fox Hunting Club . . . . . . . . 1 59 

The Shelbume Hounds ......... 1 66 

The Smithtown Hunt . . . . . . . . . . 1 68 

The Suffolk Hounds 1 70 

The Tomahawk Hunt . . . . . . . . . • 1 72 

The Toronto Hunt 1 74 

The Upland Hunt 177 

The Wanenton Hunt 1 80 

The Watchung Hunt 183 

The Westchester County Hunt . . . . . . . . 187 

The White Marsh Valley Hunt 190 

" The Goose with the Golden Eggs " . . . . . . . 1 95 



List of Illustrations 



" Huntsman's Coming "......... Frontispiece 

"Full Cry," Montreal Hunt. 1852 XVH 

John Crawford, Esq XVIIl 

A- Baumgarten, Esq. ......... XX 

BERKSHIRE 

David T. Dana, Esq., M. F. H 1 

D. Somerville, Huntsman ......... 1 

Autumn Steeplechases, 1905 ......... 2 

BLACKSTONE VALLEY 

Paul Whitin. Esq.. M. F. H 4 

BLUE RIDGE 

Edward Gay Butler, Esq., M. F. H 6 

BLUE RUN 

James N. Andrews, Esq., M. F. H 8 

BRANDYWINE 

Charles E. Mather, Esq., M. F. H 10 

Hunt Staff and Hounds ......... 12 

CASTLE HILL 

Mrs. Allen Potts, M. F. H 15 

CHARLOTTESVILLE 

The Field, April 9, 1908 17 

CHESTER VALLEY 

R. Penn Smith, Esq., M. F. H 19 

CHEVY CHASE 

Clarence Moore, Esq., M. F. H. 21 

R. Currsin, Huntsman .......... 2 1 

Robert Neville, Esq. 22 

Charles H. L. Johnston, Esq. ......... 24 

DEEP RUN 

J. St. George Bryan, Esq., M. F. H 26 

ELKRIDGE 

Alexander Brown, Esq. .......... 28 

T. Swann Latrobe, Esq. ......... 28 

Edward A Jackson, Esq., M. F. H. 30 

Leo Gardell, Huntsman ......... 30 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

ENDEAN 

The Master, Hunt Staff and Hounds 32 

ESSEX 

Charles Pfizer. Esq., M. F. H 34 

Hunt Staff and Hounds 34 

On the Way Home 34 

GENESEE VALLEY 

Major W. Austin Wadsworth, M. F. H 36 

James Blower, Huntsman, and Hounds, 1 898 ..... 38 

A Morning in Kennels .......... 40 

GRAFTON 
Harry W. Smith, Esq., M. F. H 44 

GREEN RIVER 
Frank Sherman Peer, Esq., M. F. H 48 

GREEN SPRING VALLEY 
Redmond C. Stewart, Esq., M. F. H. 50 

HARKAWAY 

Frank M. Lowry, Esq., M. F. H 55 

Going to Cover ............ 55 

IROQUOIS 
Brigadier-General Roger D. Williams, M. F. H 57 

KESWICK 
Hunt Staff and Hounds ......... 60 

LIMA 
The Master, Hunt Staff and Hounds 62 

LONDON 

Adam Beck, Esq., M. F. H., and Hunt Staff 64 

W. Edwards 66 

LOUDOUN 
Westmoreland Davis, Esq., M. F. H 68 

MEADOW BROOK 

F. Gray Griswold, Esq. ......... 72 

RaphN. Ellis, Esq. 72 

Samuel Willets, Esq., M. F. H 74 

Robert Cotesworth .......... 76 

Michael Hanlon, Huntsman ......... 76 

Hunt Staff and Hounds ......... 78 

The Hounds ........... 78 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

MIDDLEBURG 

Claude Hatcher, Huntsman. ........ 81 

MIDDLESEX 

A. Henry Higginson, Esq., M. F. H 83 

The Pack and Hunt Staff 84 

Ned Cotesworth, Kennel Huntsman ........ 84 

The Pack, 1908 86 

MIDLOTHIAN 

J. L. Stack, Esq., M. F. H 89 

MILLBROOK 

Dr. M. O'Malley Knott, Hon. Huntsman 91 

MILLWOOD AND OWL'S NEST 

Robert Forbes Perkins, Esq., M. F. H 94 

MissquRi 

Dr. St. Clair Streett, M. F. H 97 

Hunt Staff and Hounds 98 

MONMOUTH COUNTY 

P. F. Collier, Esq., M. F. H 100 

Edgeir Caffyn, Huntsman ......... 1 00 

The M. F. H. and Hounds 102 

MONTREAL 

Hugh Paton, Esq. 104 

Sir H. Montagu Allan 1 04 

George Hooper, Esq. . . . . . . . . • . . 106 

Dr. Charles McEachran ] 06 

William R. Miller, Esq. 1 08 

Will Nicholls, Huntsman j 08 

The Master, Hunt Staff and Hounds, 1908 110 

MR. HITCHCOCK'S 

Thomas Hitchcock, Jr., Esq., M. F. H. 1)4 

MR. MADDUX'S 

James K. Maddux. Esq., M. F. H. I | 7 

MR. OKIE'S 

F. W. Okie, Esq., M. F. H 119 

MYOPIA 

Hugh A. Allan, Esq 121 

Frank Seabury, Esq. . . . . . . 121 

Joe Barrar, Kennel Huntsman . . . . . . .122 

Summer Exercise ......... 122 

The Pack, 1908 124 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
NORFOLK 

Henry G. Vaughan Esq., M. F. H 127 

Hunt Staff and Hounds 1 28 

A. McGregor, Kennel Huntsman ....... 128 

A Bird's-eye View from the Clubhouse . . . .130 

OAK RIDGE 

J. M. B. Lewis, Esq., M. F. H 1 32 

The Hunt Staff. 1908 132 

ONWENTSIA 

Arthur T. Aldis, Esq 134 

W. Vernon Booth, Esq. 1 34 

James F. Lord, Esq., M. F. H 134 

ORANGE COUNTY 

John R. Townsend, Esq., M. F. H. 137 

The Orange County Pack ........ 1 38 

PIEDMONT 

Colonel Richard Hunter Dulany, late Master . . . 1 44 

PORTLAND 

T. 5. McGrath. Esq., M. F. H 146 

PORTSMOUTH 

Dr. Arthur Cowton Heffenger, M. F. H. 148 

Master Charles P. Heffenger, Hon. Whipper-in . . . 148 

Two Couples of the Portsmouth Hounds . . . . . . . 1 48 

RADNOR 

W. Hinckle Smith. Esq., M. F. H 150 

John R. Valentine, Esq. . . . .152 

TheMaster, Hunt Staff and Hounds. 1906 154 

RIVERSIDE 

LeRoy Roper. Esq., M. F. H 157 

M. C. Jackson, Esq., Hon. Huntsman 157 

ROSE TREE 

General Edward Morrell . 1 60 

Going to Cover ........... 1 62 

The Pack .... 1 62 

Talking it Over .......... 1 64 

SHELBURNE 

J. Watson Webb. Esq., M. F. H . . 166 

H. Hopkins. Kennel Huntsman ..... . . 166 

Hunt Staff and Hounds ....... . . 1 66 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

SMITHTOWN 
Clarence H. Robbins, Esq., M. F. H 168 

SUFFOLK 

Richard Newton, Jr., Esq., M. F. H 1 70 

TOMAHAWK 

Wallace W, Sanford, Esq., M. F. H 1 72 

UPLAND 

Edward Crozer, Esq., M. F. H 177 

A Morning Meet 1 78 

A Good Litter 1 78 

WARRENTON 

F. A. B. Portman, Esq., late Master 180 

" A Good 'un to Follow " . . . . 1 82 

WATCHUNG 

Lewis E. Waring, Esq., M. F. H., and Hounds . . 184 

Hunt Staff and pack . . . . i 86 

WESTCHESTER 

Eugene S. Reynal, Esq., M. F. H. . . 188 

WHITE MARSH VALLEY 

Welsh Strawbridge, Esq., M. F. H. ... ... 190 

J. G. Leiper, Jr., Esq., Hon. Huntsman ... 190 

Going to Cover . . . . . . .190 

Well Over ... 190 




Ss 



1 1 



Introduction 



HUNTING in America, to-day, is far more popular than many 
people imagine, and that it is becoming more so is clearly 
evinced by the great number of Hunts which are organized 
each year. Throughout Virginia and Pennsylvania, hunting has always 
been a favorite sport, and packs of hounds, usually of the " trencher-fed " 
variety, have been maintained since early in the eighteenth century; but the 
formation of regular organizations for the purpose of hunting is, for the most 
part, a thing of the last thirty years. True it is, that the Brooklyn Hunt 
Club seems to have existed in 1781; and that the Gloucester Fox Hunting 
Club dates from 1 766 ; but except for these two, and the Montreal Hunt 
of Canada, which was founded in 1 826, we find no regular packs kept up 
till the early seventies. To-day there are fifty-six packs of hounds regularly 
maintained for the purpose of fox- or drag-hunting, either by hunt clubs or 
private individuals. When we say there are fifty-six, we do not mean to 
infer, for an instant, that this includes all the private or even subscription packs. 
On the contrary, there are doubtless many small packs in Virginia and else- 
where that have either sprung up recently, or have been rejuvenated, of 
which we have no knowledge; but these packs are so constantly changing 
owTiership and so little record has been kept of their history that it has been 
impossible to include them in this volume. In parts of Virginia and Penn- 
sylvania, almost every family " keeps hounds," and these join vsith one another 
in showing the best of sport in many instances. 

Fox-hunting in America is almost contemporary with fox-hunting in Eng- 
land, but the development in England has been much more rapid, and the 
whole game has been carried out on a much more scientific basis than in the 
United States and Canada. This hardly seems the place to go into the 
question in detail of the respective merits of the foxhound as he is produced 
in England and in America to-day. The question is one on which various 
writers differ widely ; but at the same time it is a question of so much in- 



INTRODUCTION 

terest to the hunting man of to-day that we feel constrained to put certain 
facts before the readers of this book, most of whom, we are well aware, will 
differ with us in their final conclusions. 

The conditions in England differ widely from those in America in the 
following particulars : first, in the quality of the climate, which makes a dif- 
ference in the scenting conditions; second, in the conformation of the country 
hunted over ; third, in the nature of the quarry, and fourth, in the method of 
hunting it. 

To take up the differences singly — the climate of England is such that the 
ground is apt to be in a much damper condition than that of America ; and 
being so, scent " lies " better and hounds do not require such tenderness of 
nose as some scenting conditions in America seem to require. Second, the 
conformation of the average hunting country in England is such that it is 
easier for a Field to follow hounds than in America. Third, foxes in Eng- 
land are much more plentiful and, in our opinion, much less wild than in 
America, in England foxes are protected by popular feeling, and cared for 
from birth, to a certam degree, whereas in America, or at any rate in the 
greater portion of it, the fox is considered vermin and has to shift for himself 
from the first. On the other hand, foxes in England are hunted more and, 
by reason of the earth-stoppmg, cannot go to ground, and must run for their 
lives. Finally, we come to the fourth and last point of difference; the method 
of pursuing the sport. How does the average American huntsman set to 
work ? He goes out at daybreak and draws, not coverts, but fields — open 
fields — till some one of his hounds hits on a " feed-trail," perhaps five or six 
hours old. The hound promptly gives tongue — the rest of the pack may 
hark in to him or they may not, according to their taste (a bad trait in the 
American hound); and in any case they go on hunting along at two miles 
an hour till they " jump " their fox ; or if, as is often the case, he has gone 
on they keep at it all day. Very different this, from the other method, 
where one either draws a covert blank and goes on to draw again ; or finds 
and gets a run. 

Now then, having stated these facts, which are conceded by all hound- 
men, let us take a look at the situation. If a man wants to go out and sit 




JOHN CRAWFORD, ESQ., M.F.H. 
Three times Master of the Montreal Hunt 
, Painting presented by the past and present met 



INTRODUCTION 

still on a horse on some hill-top and hear his hounds work and, by riding 
from point to point, watch them as they pass him and let them do all the 
work, let him, by all means, stick to the American hound with his tender 
nose and free tongue. His hounds may be throwing their tongues on a line 
four hours old, or it may be the line of a hare or some other riot, he can't tell, 
but he won't know ; and this is one of the cases " where ignorance is bliss." 
Nay, we'll admit that often they may be right, and that if he is a riding man 
and cares to, he'll often have a cracking run and kill his fox — so he would 
if he had drawn his covert as an Englishman would with English hounds ; be- 
side saving a lot of time while hounds were "towling " away on that cold line. 
But if he wants to get a day's hunting as many men enjoy it most; if he wants 
to see hounds and huntsman work together, help each other like good parts 
of a well-built machine, then let him go out with English hounds, let him see 
them draw their coverts and find their fox, and force him out, and on, at such 
a pace that it takes a good horse and a stout-hearted man to stay v^ath them. 
Perhaps they'll lose him if the scent is bad, or some unforeseen occurrence 
presents itself — perhaps they'll put him to ground and perhaps they'll kill him 
in the open. In any case they'll have a good day's sport and our friend will 
know they are hunting a fox. 

What does the supporter of the American hound claim to be the ad- 
vantages of that hybrid animal ? Better nose ? Granted ; it is so tender 
that its owner is forever telling us of a line that may be far too old to hunt. 
More independence ? Granted ; and to such an extent that the average 
American hound will hunt a cat, or a cur dog, or anything else that crosses 
its path. English hounds are keen enough if only they are let alone. 
More speed ? Granted ; for a mile or so till their weak loins and open feet 
give out. More voice? Granted; to babble with. How else does it aid 
them, if their huntsman is riding up ? 

We are not going to enumerate the good qualities of the English hound ; 
it would take too much time. We'll only say this. Four of the packs 
enumerated in this volume — packs whose owners have gone to quite a bit 
of expense to get the best — use pure-blooded English hounds. All four 
Masters and their huntsmen agree on one point — i. e. that in order to get 



INTRODUCTION 

the best results from their hounds they have been forced to rely, not on the 
imported draft-hound, but on the home-bred product ; bred from imported 
pure-blooded stock, which is not like the imported hound sent away for 
some fault. Suppose, gentlemen, Masters of American packs, an English- 
man comes over and buys your culls, and then takes them to England and tries 
them out against the Quorn and the Pytchley and the Bel voir ? Is that 
fair ? No, — give Englishmen their due. At some things we excell them 
— they'll admit it — but not at hound breeding. They have a long start. 

We have been led into a much fuller discussion of the hound question 
than we had intended, but must ask the forbearance of our readers for tak- 
ing this opportunity to make certain statements which will be, perhaps, of 
some interest to lovers of the Foxhound, both English and American. 

During the last thirty years, there has been a tremendous growth of 
hunting. Organizations have sprung up all through the United States and 
Canada, and already the western states are beginning to show an interest in 
the sport. To such Englishmen as may read this book, the scale on which 
hunting is carried on here as compared with England will seem very small. 
To them we would say that they must remember that hunting in America, 
while not in its infancy, is, as it is practised in England, at least in its 
adolescence. Many an old fox hunter in America has hunted from the 
road in his buggy, as was the case with Messrs. Skinner and Donahue of 
Hackensack ; and many of the farmers who do not usually rent their land, 
but own it, are at a loss to understand why a lot of men in scarlet coats 
should find amusement in riding over it, or why they, the owners, should 
allow it. We know one member of Concord society, the son of a distin- 
guished poet and himself a graduate of Harvard University, who considers 
hunting a "Godless custom," and will not have hounds on his land at any 
price. 

Another thing that wdll astonish our brothers over the water is the great 
number of drag-packs which are kept up. The reason for this is two-fold. 
First, there are many countries where a good drag can be laid, but in which 
it is pretty difficult to hunt foxes, ov^ang to the size of the coverts and the 
superabundance of wire. Second, there are many men who are often able 



INTRODUCTION 

to devote a few hours, two or three times a week, to drag-hunting, but 
who would not take the time away from their business to put in a day's fox- 
hunting. Still, fox-hunting, we are happy to say, is on the increase, and several 
drag-packs have given up that form of sport and taken to "The Noble Science." 
Just one more word. The question of good looks has always been one 
of too little significance to the American hunting man. " Give me a pack 
of pointers," said the Master of an American pack once, "if they'll hunt a 
fox." It is this spirit that has helped to injure the American hound in 
looks. In late years, however, more attention has been paid to this matter, 
and the inauguration of a National Hound Show similar to one held at 
Peterboro, England, has had the result of a distinct improvement in the 
general looks and conformation of hounds. A hound can work just as well if 
he is good looking — that is one of the many points where England is ahead 
of us in hound breeding. It will be years before we can produce such 
hounds as our fellow-sportsmen and cousins over the water, but it can't hurt 
us to try. 



The Berkshire Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Green 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, green facings 

MASTER David T. Dana, Esq. 

SECRETARY Charles Astor Bristed. Esq.. Lenox, Mass. 

HUNTSMAN The Master 

KENNEL HUNTSMAN David Somerville 

WHIPPERS-IN \ ' "• 'W'^^^ 

( 2nd. Peterson 

HOUNDS 1 4 couples, English 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Lenox, Mass. 

DAYS OF MEETING Tuesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON September 1 st to December 1st 



IN the spring of 1903, a few gendemen who spent the summer and 
autumn months in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, of whom the 
moving spirit was the late Arthur Sturgis Dixey, Esq., decided to es- 
tablish a small pack of draghounds, to be supported by subscription from the 
summer residents living in and about Lenox. Mr. Dixey, being aware that 
Mr. A. H. Higginson, with whom he happened to be acquainted, was giving 
up a pack of beagles which had shown very good sport after a drag in 
Middlesex County, headed a committee which, after visiting the kennels, 
eventually purchased the entire pack. 

Starting in this small way, the Berkshire Hunt has growoi, until now it has 
been recognized by the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association and 
has a large following. 

The beagles soon proved to be too slow to please the Field, owing to the 
character of the country, in which stone walls and snake fences predominate ; 



THE BERKSHIRE 

and the first Master, Clinton Gilmore, Esq., soon found it necessary to give 
up the beagles and procure a draft of English foxhounds. Some of these 
came from the well-known Meadow Brook pack on Long Island, while others 
were recruited from the kennels of the Myopia Hunt at Hamilton. 

Mr. Gilmore did his best to induce the Field to give at least part of the 
time to fox-hunting; but the frequent occurrence of wire, the bane of all 
Masters in America, made it next to impossible, and the project was aban- 
doned with reluctance for the time being. 

In the spring of 1905, the Master's health forced him to resign, as he 
found that the task was too great for him, and the present Master, David T. 
Dana, Esq., was elected in his stead. 

During the summer, a draft of ten couples of hounds was imported from 
England, coming partly from the Warwickshire and partly from the Pytch- 
ley, and with these as a foundation, the huntsman, David Somerville, late of 
the Grafton, has been able to breed a fast and fairly level pack. 

At present, there are fourteen couples of hounds in the kennels, and 
the Hunt Staff consists of the Master, who hunts the hounds himself; 
David Somerville, kennel huntsman, and two whippers-in, Wilde and 
Peterson. 

The Master formerly took hounds out but two days a week on the drag; 
but during the season of 1 907, fox-hunting was inaugurated, with fair suc- 
cess. At the beginning, the main objection to this better form of sport was 
as has been said, the prevalence of wire fencing throughout the country, but 
a Wire Fund being established in 1 905, and during the last two seasons 
being generously contributed to, all the fences in the hunting country are now 
carefully panelled, owing to the universal co-operation of the farmers; which 
enables the Field to follow hounds wherever they go. In later years, per- 
haps, the Berkshire M. F. H. wall become as keen on fox-hunting as he now 
is at the drag game, and of course this will mean more hounds, of better 
quality, and an eventual abandonment of drag-hunting, as has been the case 
in another Massachusetts Hunt, the Middlesex. 

The country hunted consists, for the most part, of rolling pastures, inter- 
spersed with the well-cultivated estates of the summer residents. The atti- 

2 



THE BERKSHIRE 

tude of the landowners is all that could be desired, and the Hunt is growing 
in popularity with them each year. 

in return for the courtesy shown the Hunt by the farmers, a Breakfast is 
tendered annually at the residence of some one of the wealthy summer col- 
ony, who are almost all members of the Hunt, to the farmers over whose 
land the Hunt rides. At this time, also, is held the annual Horse Show, the 
programme of which always includes classes for farmers' horses, with large 
cash prizes. The sport-loving residents of Lenox and the neighboring towns 
have joined the hunting fraternity in all their projects and, during the past 
four years, a small race meeting has been inaugurated, which is now held 
under the auspices of the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association. 
These meetings, starting at first with practically local entries only, have grown 
to such proportions that in 1907 there were seven races, vsath a total of 
seventy-eight entries. This spirit of steady improvement has marked all the 
proceedings of the Hunt, and great things are to be anticipated in the future. 



The Blackstone Valley Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE UNIFORM Dark blue coat, hunt buttons 

MASTER - Paul Whitin. Esq. 

SECRETARY E. Kent Swift. Esq., Whitinsville. Mass. 

HUNTSMAN The Master 

KENNEL HUNTSMAN George Davies 

HOUNDS I I couples, American 

KENNELS AND POST OFFICE Northbridge, Mass. 

DAYS OF MEETING Wednesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON October 1st to February 1st 



IN the autumn of 1 906, the Messrs. Paul Whitin, James E. Whitin and 
Leon W. Campbell, decided to try the experiment of putting together 
a number of hounds which each owned, as a scratch pack. Invita- 
tions were sent to a number of their friends, making regular fixtures for 
meets for a month, and arranging for Hunt Breakfasts at their various estates 
on some of the days of meeting. Mr. Paul Whitin, who had had a good 
deal of experience with foxhounds, having been honorary whipper-in to Mr. 
Smith's pack (the Grafton) until 1 905, carried the horn himself and man- 
aged to show such good sport that the meets proved much more popular 
than had been anticipated; the enthusiasm aroused ultimately leading to the 
formation of the Blackstone Valley Hunt in January of 1 907. Mr. Whitin 
was, as a matter of course, elected M. F. H. and, considering the short time 
in which he has had the hounds, has developed a very fair working pack. 

The Master is a rabid American hound man, whom no amount of argu- 
ment can stir hom his conviction that English hounds are absolutely unsuited 
to New England fox-hunting conditions. The following statement quoted 
from a letter to the authors, shows his position quite clearly: " We use 

4 




PAUL WHITIN, KSQ,, M.F.H. 



THE BLACKSTONE VALLEY 

American hounds entirely, as we find that, with careful training, they can 
be handled about as easily as English. So many parts of our country are 
either unrideable, or so rough, and a horse's pace through them is necessarily 
so very slow, that we need hounds which will hunt by themselves, as it is quite 
impossible to stay v«th them. We have not been breeding very extensively 
as yet, but have had fair results with what we have undertaken. 

"Some of our hounds were bred from a strain which Mr. Campbell has 
developed along lines of his owti for a number of years ; some of them are 
from the South, and we find that those from the Walkers in Kentucky give 
the best all-round results of any we have bought. 

"We also find that the Campbell hounds, which have a distant cross on 
the old-fashioned New England foxhound, have very keen noses and are 
very useful on dry, v^nndy, poor-scenting days, when Southern hounds are 
relatively at a disadvantage." 

The country over which the Blackstone Vcdley Hounds hunt is rather 
rough and wooded and there is also a good deal of swamp-land. The 
big woodlands are fairly rideable, and most of the open fields are bounded 
by stone walls which are usually rather low, but as the land is apt to be 
very rough on either side of them, the jumping is extremely trappy and the 
horses which go best are very quiet and clever jumpers. A hot horse is 
really dangerous in many of the rough pastures and thick woodlands. The 
landowners are, on the whole, well disposed, being only too glad to do all 
they can to keep down the foxes, which are steadily on the increase. Ow- 
ing to the character of the country it is impossible to do any systematic 
earth-stopping, hence all the chances are in favor of the fox, and hounds are 
rarely able to kill above ground. 

Hunting men who are lucky enough to have a good grass country over 
which they can enjoy a sustained gallop, scarcely realize the tremendous 
difficulties of fox-hunting in parts of New England, but to those who are 
great lovers of the niceties of hound-work, as are Mr. Whitin and many of the 
members of the Blackstone Valley Hunt, the abundance of foxes more than 
makes up for the difficult character of the country. As the immortal Beckford 
says : " The countries which are favorable to horses are seldom so to hounds." 

5 



The Blue Ridge Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR - Navy blue 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coal, navy blue facmgs 

MASTER Edward Gay Butler, Esq. 

SECRETARY Townsend Burwell, ELsq., Millwood, Va. 

HUNTSMAN The Master 

HON. WHIPPERS-IN \ !"' %'''^' ^f !f ' ^^- ^ 

( Znd, lownsend burwell, iLsq. 

HOUNDS - ' 2 couples, American 

KENNELS " Annefleld." Millwood, Va. 

POST OFFICE Berryville, Clarke County, Va. 

DAYS OF MEETING Wednesday and Saturday 

and holidays 

LENGTH OF SEASON September 1 5th to April 1 5th 



THE Blue Ridge Hunt, which was founded in 1 888, with head- 
quarters at Millwood, Clarke County, Virginia, is blessed with 
one of the most beautiful hunting countries in America. The 
large rolling Shenandoah Valley, with the Blue Ridge on the east and the 
Allegheny mountains on the west, affords a variety of country which it 
would be hard to equal ; strong woodland coverts where the foxes are 
plentiful, stony upland pastures and acres of good blue-grass are there, while 
the fencing is of every variety — stone walls, post-and-rails, Virginia snake 
fences, and last, but not least, alas ! the wire, the greatest curse of the 
hunting man, in America as well as in England. And, worst of all, on the 
increase here, as in many other places. If the farmers only realized the 
truth of the poem at the end of this volume, they would never put up a 
strand of wire again ; but even wdth this drawback, the followers of the Blue 

6 



THE BLUE RIDGE 

Ridge hounds have little to complain of, for the Master shows good sport 
on Wednesdays and Saturdays from September 1 5 th to April I 5 th — a 
long season for any country. 

The pack consists of about a dozen couples of American hounds ; a very 
fair lot, which were bred in the Shenandoah Valley and hence adapted to 
the country hunted. 

The type of horse most used is a half or three-quarter bred one, as the 
pace is not particularly fast and there is a good deal of very trappy jump- 
ing. Hunters that have been schooled vsath the Blue Ridge hounds are to 
be found in many of the northern countries. " Pendennis," a stallion of 
great reputation as a getter of hunters, stood in this section for a great many 
years, and one of the best lady's hunters the authors have ever seen was a 
brown gelding by "Pendeimis" named "The Wizard," owned by Mrs. 
Henderson of Millwood, which has been hunted regularly with the Blue 
Ridge and Middlesex packs. 

When the Hunt was founded in 1 888, Dr. Gwynn Harrison was elected 
M. F. H., and continued to hold that office until 1896, when George 
Jones, Esq., carried the horn, only to be followed in 1 897 by Arthur 
Bevan, Esq., who remained in office for a year, when Dr. Harrison again 
took the pack, remaining in office until 1904, when Edward Gay But- 
ler, Esq., of Berryville was elected. Mr. Butler built quarters for the hounds 
at his own place, " Annefield," and has remained in office ever since, hunt- 
ing the hounds himself, and shovsang excellent sport, the Fields averaging 
from twenty to twenty-five in number. 

The attitude of the landowTiers is most friendly, much of the country 
hunted over in Clarke County being owned by members, and an annual 
luncheon is given to all landowners over whose property the Hunt rides. 

Foxes are plentiful, and of two varieties, red foxes predominating along 
the Shenandoah River, while the grays are to be found in abundance along 
the Opeguon. 



The Blue Run Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Sky blue 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, sky blue facings 

MASTER James N. Andrews, ELsq. 

SECRETARY George Barbour, Esq., Somerset, Va. 

HUNTSMAN The Master 

1st, W. H. Sandy 



WHIPPERS-IN 1 o J c 1 u ., 

Znd, oamuel Hudley 

HOUNDS 1 8 couples, English 

KENNELS Waverly Farm, Orange County, Va. 

POST OFFICE Somerset, Orange County, Va. 

DAYS OF MEETING One day a week and occasional 

bye-days 

LENGTH OF SEASON September 15th to May Isl 



ONE of the younger Hunts in the vicinity of Charlottesville, Vir- 
ginia, is the Blue Run, whose kennels are located at Waverly 
Farm, in Somerset, Orange County. In December 1 905, a num- 
ber of gentlemen, landowners who controlled most of the hunting country 
around Somerset and who had been hunting from time to time vsath the 
Charlottesville and Keswick packs, came to the conclusion that they might 
as well support a Hunt of their own and, joining together under the Presidency 
of Mr. William DuPont, formed the Blue Run Hunt. 

The officers elected at that time were William DuPont, Esq., of Orange, 
President and Treasurer; George Barbour, Esq., of Somerset, Secretary, and 
James N. Andrews, Esq., of Somerset, M. F. H. These gentlemen still 
continue in office and the Master, now in his fourth season, has got together 
an excellent pack of eighteen couples of English hounds. 




Jl 



JAMES N. ANDREWS, ESQ., M.F.II. 



THE BLUE RUN 

Contrary to the usual preference of Soutfiemers, the members of the Blue 
Run find that the Elnglish hound, with his better manners and more level 
appearance is best suited to their purposes. This only tends to prove the 
opinion so strongly upheld by those Masters who have given the English 
foxhound a fair trial in America and who contend that if properly handled 
in the field, better sport can be obtained by its use than by using the native 
product. 

From the middle of September until May the Blue Run hounds go out 
after fox or on the drag on one advertised day of the week, while frequent 
bye-days are arranged to suit the convenience of the members and the 
exigencies of weather conditions. The country is rolling and in places quite 
mountainous, many small streams and ditches, interspersed wath plank, stone 
and post-and-rail fences, affording interesting jumping. 

There is a great deal of woodland and very little of the country hunted 
over is under cultivation, which condition seems to rather disprove the con- 
tention of many southern Masters that English hounds are useless in a 
heavily wooded country where much of the hunting has to be done without 
the aid of a huntsman. Scenting conditions are excellent and the Master, 
who carries the horn himself, is able to show very good sport. Of course, 
the going is very trappy, and a half-bred horse of quiet disposition and the 
best of manners is the one best adapted to the country and proves the most 
satisfactory. 

The farmers are very well disposed toward the Hunt and are often to be 
seen in considerable number at the meets. Gordonsville and Orange, both 
within half-a-dozen miles of the kennels, afford excellent accommodations 
for visiting sportsmen, who are always welcome in the Field. 



The Brandywine Hounds 

(MR. MATHER'S) 

DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Old gold 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, old gold facings 

MASTER Charles E. Mather. Esq.. Philadelphia, Pa. 

HUNTSMAN William Thompson 

1st, Tom Parker 



^ 2nd, Delmont Broadbelt 

HOUNDS 45 couples, English 

KENNELS Brandywine Meadow Farm 

POST-OFFICE West Chester, Chester County, Pa. 

DAYS OF MEETING Every hunting day 

LENGTH OF SEASON October 1st to April Ist 

j^ S early as 1 766, an organized Hunt, known as the Gloucester 
/ ^ Fox Hunting Club, was established in America, starting with a 
J m fixed limit of twenty-five members. The organizers of this 
club were residents of Philadelphia and of the county of Gloucester, 
across the Delaware River in New Jersey. Its hunting was somewhat 
irregular, yet was organized along a definite line, and later on hounds 
went out on Thursdays and Fridays, and the Fields on holidays were 
large. 

The scant records of its existence indicate that it found plenty of sport, 
for the company often sat dowTi to the hunting dinner with two or even 
three brushes to their credit ; which can scarcely ever be said of more 
modern Hunts. The American Revolution, of course, interrupted all reg- 
ular hunting, but at the close of the war, the original President of the Hunt 
Club, Samuel Morris, Esq., was re-elected and the club revived. 

Mr. Morris was one of the organizers of the First Troop of Philadelphia 

10 




CHARLES E. MATHER, ESQ., M.F.H. 



THE BRANDYWINE 

City Cavalry and became its Captain, thus continuing to command many 
of the Club members who had joined its ranks. When Peace was finally 
made, he was among those who received the thanks of General Washing- 
ton for gallant services rendered at Trenton and Monmouth, and later 
became Governor of the " State in Schuylkill," one of the oldest social clubs 
in the world. 

The history of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club, which will be found 
in another place, belongs rightly to the Rose Tree Fox Hunting Club, 
which is directly descended from it, although this is true of almost all of the 
Pennsylvania Hunts. 

Among the various Hunts which developed about Philadelphia were the 
Chester Valley, Lima, Radnor, and many others ; but as we are writing of 
the Brandywine Hounds, of which Mr. Charles E. Mather has always been 
sole Master and owner, it is only necessary to touch upon that portion of 
the Radnor history with which Mr. Mather has to do. The Radnor Hunt 
was organized in 1884 and developed slowly until 1887, when Mr. 
Mather was elected to the Mastership, and a more happy selection it would 
have been difficult to make, coming, as he did, from a fox-hunting family ; 
his grandfather having maintained a pack of foxhounds at Coatesville, 
Pennsylvania, seventy-five years earlier. 

Mr. Mather is one of the strongest supporters of the English foxhound in 
the United States today, and has bred hounds more systematically and for 
a longer time than anyone else ; consequently his opinions are of great value 
to the fox-hunting world and his remarks on hunting in Pennsylvania are 
given in full, as follows : 

" When I became Master of the Radnor Hounds, in 1 887, the Radnor 
Hunt, which succeeded to the name and country — the latter consisting of 
Radnor township and a goodly portion of the land surrounding it — had 
been hunted by a farmer's pack for many years. 

" This pack we purchased and kept and hunted in the manner customary 
to farmers in those days. They were of the good old-fashioned type of 
hound, slow but with good noses and voices, and made a good nucleus for 
our pack, which was augmented from time to time by the purchase of other 

II 



THE BRANDYWINE 

private packs in the vicinity, with the double object of increasing our kennels 
and our country. At no time during the fifteen years of my Mastership 
was the Hunt without a good pack of native hounds. For several seasons 
I was my own huntsman, and continued to hunt the hounds on various oc- 
casions while I held office there. In 1 889, being in England, I brought 
over five couples of English hounds and hunted them vAlh the others, and 
considered that it improved the general work of the pack. 

" In the spring of 1 89 1 , just at the close of the hunting season, our entire 
pack of twenty-five couples of most excellent hounds, which I had been 
selecting for years, was destroyed by rabies ; but by the time the hunting 
season came round in the fall I had again secured two of the adjacent 
packs. 

" In the fall of 1 892, 1 secured the Belvoir draft for the year — young and 
old — thirty-one couples in all, which 1 purchased and maintained at my own 
expense, while they were at Radnor. My first huntsman was Frank Gil- 
lard, Jr., son of the noted Belvoir huntsman, and later, Alfred Loder ; in fact, 
at no time have I had other than English huntsmen, my present one, William 
Thompson, having been late huntsman to Lord Fitzhardinge's pack, the Old 
Berkeley, said to be one of the best working packs in the Kingdom. 

" From 1 892 to 1 897, native and English packs were hunted together or 
separately, as it might chance. By 1 897, the land in Radnor township be- 
coming very valuable and more thickly settled each year, I was tempted to 
migrate to a more open country, about eighteen miles to the south and 
located on the Brandywine River in Chester County, transferring my hounds 
— the Belvoir draft — to that location, where they have since been known 
as ' The Brandywine Hounds.' " 

In 1 90 1 , Mr. Mather resigned his office as Master of the Radnor, after a 
period of fourteen years, and since that time has devoted his attention to 
breeding a type of hound which, in his opinion, is best suited to the country 
over which he hunts. He has met with great success and the Brandywine 
Hounds today are the oldest pure-blooded pack in the United States. 

From time to time, Mr. Mather has imported a new stallion hound from the 
Belvoir, but has never sullied his pack with an introduction of inferior blood. 

12 



THE BRANDYWINE 

In his opinion, there is no such distinction, in fact, as an English foxhound 
and an American foxhound. To quote his own words : " A thorough- 
bred foxhound is the same in England as in America. We come down to 
the distinction of hounds of pure blood and hounds that have been crossed 
with other breeds. These crosses have been so numerous that it is impos- 
sible to breed these crossed or so-called ' native ' hounds with any degree of 
certainty as to what the produce will be." 

The result of his breeding is that he has produced a pack of foxhounds 
which have become thoroughly localized and which are, in reality, to again 
quote his own words : " Chester County hounds, all having been bred on 
the farm for more generations than the average American, and are, there- 
fore, English by descent only. I feel positively sure that my home-bred 
hounds are faster and have better noses and voices than their imported pro- 
genitors. Also, I think that they have become more self-reliant because of 
the necessity of giving them a wider range when drawing our large wood- 
lands. Foxes hereabouts are very wild and strong and on one recent 
occasion in February my hounds ran one fox from 8:30 a. m. until 3:00 
p. m., finally putting him to ground. There were only a few short checks, 
and hounds were at no time lifted. The pace was fast throughout, and 
horses couldn't live Vfiih them at the finish." 

The attitude of the landowTiers in the Brandywine country is most friendly, 
they having been accustomed to fox-hunting all their lives, many of them 
following the hounds themselves, while others see what they can of the 
day's hunting on foot. 

In fact, Chester County is one of the most ideal hunting countries in the 
United States. Fox-hunting has been the winter sport of the community 
ever since Colonial days, and at one township, a few years ago, there was 
celebrated the one-hundredth anniversary of a meet of foxhounds at a cer- 
tain farm v«th over five hundred hounds. 

Mr. Mather maintains extensive stabling at his Brandywine Meadow 
Farm in Birmingham township — the Brandywine battlefield. There the 
hounds and hunters are bred, and for some years past no outside purchases 
have been made. Whenever these are required, whether for horse or hound, 

13 



THE BRANDYWINE 

Mr. Mather insists that they shall be thoroughbred, his brood-mares being 
Irish hunters which he has himself imported. 

It is perhaps unnecessary to say that the hunting establishment is, and 
always has been, maintained at the Master's expense, being his personal 
property, and it is worthy of note here that the best packs in America, as 
in England, are those maintained by private individuals, where the Master- 
ship is not changing from time to time. 



I 



The Castle Hill Hounds 

(MRS. POTTS'S) 

DISTINCTIVE COLLAR - Dark blue 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, dark blue collar and facings 

MASTER Mrs. Allen Potts 

SECRETARY Allen Potts, Esq., "Castle Hai," Cobham, Va. 

HUNTSMAN The Master 



arnson 



WHIPPERS-IN \ \'\ Y'f^ ^ 

( 2nd, J. Johnson 

HOUNDS - 11 couples, English 

KENNELS AND POST OFFICE "Castle Hill," Cobham, Va. 

DAYS OF MEETING Monday, Wednesday and Friday 

LENGTH OF SEASON October 1st to April 15th 



THE Castle Hill Hounds are probably as old a pack as exists in 
America today, and yet, owing to the fact that they always have 
been and still are a private pack, it is a difficult matter to give 
any accurate facts as to their history. The present pack is the property of 
Mrs. Allen Potts, nee Miss Gertrude Rives, who is the direct descendant 
of Dr. Thomas Walker, whose father was an early settler in Virginia. 
" Castle Hill," the estate from which the pack takes its name, has always 
been in the possession of Mrs. Potts's family and foxhounds have always 
been kept, there being a family pack at all times except during the periods 
of the American Revolution and the Civil War. 

The first Master, Dr. Thomas Walker, of " Castle Hill," about the year 
1 742 imported a pack of foxhounds from England, which he maintained 
and hunted for the amusement of his family and neighbors. The old 
gentleman was a great sportsman, and on account of his feats of strength • 
was originated the expression " The Devil and Tom Walker." 

15 



THE CASTLE HILL 

Just what type of hounds his were would be difficult to tell, but Dr. 
Walker is said to have been a great lover of the foxhound, and they were 
probably of the best blood procurable at that time. Up to the Revolution 
these hounds were probably carefully maintained, and no outside blood 
sullied their pedigrees, but it is to be feared that the younger generations 
were less careful, and the pack gradually fell to the level of most of the 
Virginia " trencher fed " hounds. 

Mrs. Potts, who is a finished horsewoman, procured five couples of pure- 
blooded English hounds from the mother country, and "Castle Hill" is 
one of the few places in Virginia where one can see clean-bred English 
hounds today. 

Mr. Allen Potts attended the Grafton-Middlesex Foxhound Match at 
Middleburg, Va., in the autumn of 1 905, acting as Honorary Clerk of the 
Match, and saw there that really good English hounds could show the best 
of sport, possessing lots of speed and at the same time level heads. 

Mrs. Potts has given her Field most excellent sport three days a week 
over the small territory ten miles square in Albemarle County which sur- 
rounds " Castle Hill," and all the landowners have shown the most friendly 
spirit in allowing this little pack to hunt over their property. 

The country, which is quite open, is fenced throughout with the typical 
Virginia fence, the "snake-fence," and the jumping is pretty stiff, though 
sound take-off and landing make good going. The Fields are small, eight 
or ten being the usual number, but enthusiastic, and they are always out to 
go. Foxes are fairly plentiful and are hunted most of the time, though once 
in a while the Master lays a drag for those of the Field who wish a bruis- 
ing gallop. 

There is no subscription, the pack being in every way a private one, 
although the public, and especially the farmers, are warmly welcomed 
guests. 

The Castle Hill Hounds enjoy the distinction of being the only recog- 
nized Hunt in America which has a woman as M. F. H. and Huntsman. 



The Charlottesville Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Blue 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, blue facings 

MASTER A. S. Craven, Esq. 

SECRETARY Henry B. Boone, Esq., "West Cairns," 

Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Va. 

HUNTSMAN - William Harris 

HON. WHIPPERS-IN - . \ l'\ ^*"' ^^"^' t' ^''*- 

( Znd, rercy Payne, Esq. 

HOUNDS ^ ^ Couples, English 

I 1 Couples, American 

KENNELS " Azalia," Albemarle County, Va. 

POST-OFFICE Charlottesville. Va. 

DAYS OF MEETING \ Foxhounds, Tuesday and Friday 

( Draghounds, Thursday 

LENGTH OF SEASON October 15th to April 15th 



EARLY in 1 854, a subscription pack, kept up by the residents of 
the country around the university town of Charlottesville, hunted 
over the territory now claimed by the Charlottesville Hunt. 
Members of the University of Virginia, founded by President Thomas Jef- 
ferson of " Monticello," lent their support to the Hunt, which, although 
carried on in a desultory manner, continued its existence until 1 894, when it 
was formally founded and reorganized under its present name. 

Not until 1 907, however, did it ask the National Steeplechase and Hunt 
Association for recognition, which was granted in October of that year. 
Much of the country about Charlottesville is settled by Englishmen, many 
of whom maintain breeding establishments and devote their time to the 
raising of horses in which thoroughbred blood predominates. One of these 

17 



THE CHARLOTTESVILLE 

men, the late Francis Trevelyan, Esq., who was for many years identified 
with racing in America, was the first Master of the recognized Hunt, and 
continued to act in that capacity, to the entire satisfaction of his Field, until 
his death in January, 1908. He was followed in office by the present 
Master, A. S. Craven, Esq., who has always maintained a private pack, at 
Greenwood, in Albemarle County, some twenty miles from his present 
kennels. It will be recalled that his father, J. A. Craven, Esq., was Master 
of the Pytchley from 1869 to 1872, and one can understand why the 
present Master of the Charlottesville Hunt is so admirably fitted to hold the 
reins of office. 

There are at present in the kennels, eighteen couples of hounds, eight 
couples of which are English and are used for drag-hunting on Thursdays, 
and ten couples of which are " natives "and used for fox-hunting on Tues- 
days and Fridays. 

Within thirty miles of Charlottesville, there are four other packs of 
hounds ; the Keswick, the Castle Hill, the Tomahawk and the Blue Run, 
affording a rare choice to the lovers of fox-hunting living in this sporting 
neighborhood, and the country, which by-the-bye, is one of the best scenting 
countries in Virginia, is nearly all grass, well fenced with " snake " and 
post-and-rail fences, which make it a capital one for riding. It abounds 
in foxes, both red and gray, and is eminently suited to the lover of the 
" Noble Science," as well as for the hard-riding man who only wants a 
gallop after the drag. 

The landowners, as with all those of Albemarle County, are most fav- 
ourably inclined toward hunting, as the sport has been a popular local insti- 
tution since the earliest days, and many of them go out regularly with the 
various packs. 




R. PENN SMITH, ESQ., M.F.U. 



The Chester Valley Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Green 

MASTER - R. Penn Smith, Esq. 

SECRETARY - W. A. Rolin, Esq., Strafford. Pa. 

HUNTSMAN J. R. Pechin 

WHIPPERS-IN \ !^''^^''"^f"; , ^ 

( znd, K. renn bmith, Jr., Esq. 

HOUNDS 25 couples, American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Strafford, Chester County, Pa. 

DAYS OF MEETING Monday, Wednesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON November 20th to March 20th 



ONE of the sportsmen who came to the inaugural meeting of the 
Masters of Foxhounds Association which was held in New 
York in February, 1907, was Mr. R. Penn Smith, Master of 
the Chester Valley Hunt of Pennsylvania. 

Fox-hunting in that State, which, of late years has become so general 
that packs have sprung up all over the Commonwealth, has its headquarters 
in and around Philadelphia, whose residents have perhaps a greater percent- 
age of fox-hunters among their number than any other city in the country. 
Among the Hunts about Philadelphia, the Chester Valley, although one 
of the more modest, is well known. Founded in 1 896 by Messrs. E. R. 
Heyman, R. A. Colgan, R. Penn Smith, J. Comly Hall, Henry O. Garber 
and E. J. Matthews, it has enjoyed a successful period of sport up to the 
present time under one able Mastership; and the fact that there has been 
no change in the governing hand during its history has been productive of 
the best of results both in the field and in its relations with the landowners. 
The Master, and for that matter most of the members, are staunch sup- 

19 



THE CHESTER VALLEY 

porters of the American type of hound, and although the Brandywine stal- 
lions, pure English foxhounds, are always at the service of their neighbors, 
affording an opportunity to the Masters of eastern Pennsylvania to experi- 
ment in the crossing of the two types, as the Radnor has done with very 
good results; nevertheless Mr. Smith has stuck pretty closely to the old- 
fashioned Pennsylvania foxhounds — no manners, no looks, no levelness — 
but with the best of noses, plenty of voice and lots of speed. 

The country extends from Bridgeport to Downingtown, a distance of seven- 
teen miles, in one direction and from the Pennsylvania R.R. to the Schuyl- 
kill River in the other, and includes the beautiful Chester Valley, from which 
the Hunt takes its name and which has no superior as a fox-hunting territory. 

Foxes are plentiful, the going sound — mostly grass with large enclosures, 
fenced in by post-and-rail fences — and supplied v«th a most liberal-minded 
set of landowners, many of whom are usually in the saddle themselves be- 
hind the hounds, of which they are warm partisans and supporters ; so that 
there is rarely any obstacle to good sport. 

Mr. Smith, while he is much keener on the work of hounds in the field 
than he is about their show qualities and manners, is a strong backer of the 
Masters of Foxhounds Association and does everything in his power to keep 
up the interest in foxhounds in his own country. He is a very busy man, 
having on his hands the management of one of the greatest stock farms in 
the United States; but he always finds time to attend to his duties as 
M. F. H. and it is in a great degree owing to his popularity in the country 
that the hounds enjoy their present prosperity. 



20 



The Chevy Chase Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Black velvet 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, scarlet facings, black velvet collar 

MASTER - Clarence Moore, Esq. 

SECRETARY Gist Blair, Esq. Washington, D. C. 

HUNTSMAN - Robert Curran 

HON. WHIPPERS-IN - \ \'\^: ^- HicKbom.Esq. 

( 2nd, J. A. C Palmer, Esq. 

HOUNDS 30 couples, English 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Chevy Chase, Md. 

DAYS OF MEETING Wednesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON - November iSthtoAprU 15th 



FOX-HUNTING about Washington was probably begun before 
the Revolution. At any rate, it is a well-known fact that General 
Washington kept hounds at Mount Vernon, and there were also 
hounds at Bladensburg and in Montgomery County at the same time ; but 
there are no records of any organized fox-hunting until the early seventies. 
At that time, a Mr. Haskins, who lived in a corner grocery store, on what 
is now Fourteenth street, kept a pack of hounds in his back yard. He was 
a true sportsman, and his horse was equally efficient in delivenng groceries 
to his customers and in carrying his master m some of the great runs which 
were had over the adjoining farms. 

There was many a man thereabouts in those times who loved the cry 
of a pack of hounds, and on off days, when business was dull, the sport- 
loving gentry used to go to " old man Haskins " and persuade him to take 
out his hounds. There were no pink coats in these early days, but there 
were some pretty stout hearts, and some pretty well-worn corduroy. 

21 



THE CHEVY CHASE 

Haskins ran his hounds in the '70's and '80's with great satisfaction to 
himself and his neighbors. The hounds which he kept were, of course, of 
the American variety, and although they babbled a bit too much, and were 
under about as good control as the game they hunted, they furnished good 
sport to their followers. 

It was not till 1 885 that an English pack was imported, and Mr. George 
Eustis, a keen sportsman and a Washingtonian by birth, was the man who 
was bold enough to take the step. The hounds were quartered at a farm 
on the Tenallytown road, where the pack was known as the Dumblane. 
With the big-boned English hounds came an Englishman named Charlie 
Briscoe, a huntsman, hrom a long family of such, who hunted the hounds for 
four years with much success, Mr. Eustis acting as Master during that period. 

The Hunt was dissolved in 1 889, and in 1 890 Mr. S. S. Howland, 
well known as a sportsman and devotee of racing, imported the second 
pack from England, the hounds being quartered at Dumblane and giving 
excellent sport during this year. 

In 1 890, Mr. Robert Neville, an Irishman by birth and a Virginian by 
adoption, was elected Master. The hounds were very popular under his 
able direction, and the condition of the farmers' fences bore full testimony 
to the hard riding of the Irish Master and his following. For two years Mr. 
Neville continued in office, showing the best of sport, and when in 1 89 1 he 
found it necessary to resign, his loss was greatly felt. 

In 1 892 Mr. Howland came back to Washington and took an old house 
on the Tenallytown road, known as " Grasslands." There the survivors of 
the old packs were sent, and Mr. Howland supplemented these with a new 
draft from England. At this time there were many Englishmen about 
Washington, and they were only too glad to join their American cousins in 
the sport which is so popular on the other side. Many a good horse fol- 
lowed the Washmgton drag in those days, and every one m this country 
knows of " Ontario," perhaps one of the greatest jumping horses the Ameri- 
can Horse Show ring has ever seen. 

Mr. Howland, while he was the Master and organizer of these hounds, 
was too busy a man to hunt them himself ; and so the Comte de Jamtelle, 

22 




ROBERT NEVILLE, ESQ., M.F.H. OF THE 15UMBLANE 1890-1891 



THE CHEVY CHASE 

a Parisian, was Honorary Huntsman, and hunted the hounds in the north 
country about Tenallytown and through Montgomery and Prince George 
Counties. 

The following autumn, 1 892, saw the organization of the Chevy Chase 
Club. Founded in the office of Harvey L. Page, the architect, it was a 
success from the first. An old white barn on the grounds of the Bannock- 
burn Golf Club was the first headquarters, and here the horses and hounds 
were quartered, until the Chevy Chase Club was started, and the Hunt 
became a part of the Club. 

In 1 893, Mr. Henry M. Earle was Master, and George Ryder hunts- 
man. In 1 894 Mr. P. F. Collier brought the Monmouth County Hounds 
down to Washington, kenneled them at Chevy Chase, and hunted on alter- 
nate days vfilh the other pack. The sport continued to be carried on in a 
similar way for the next three seasons, until 1 898, when Mr. S. S. Howland 
again took up the Mastership, and with George HoUoway as huntsman, 
restored to the Chevy Chase Hunt its former prestige. 

In 1 897 Mr. George Dunn was elected Master, and continued to hunt 
the hounds until the hunting stopped and Mr. Dunn went away to the 
Spanish War, where he was a Major in the " Rough Riders." 

There was no hunting in 1897 and 1898, but in 1899 Mr. Clarence 
Moore was elected Master. The new Master had done a good deal of 
hunting in England and Ireland and was a strong believer in the English 
hound. He straightway set to work to make the pack the equal of any in 
the country, and with this object in view imported a large draft from Eng- 
land, the majority of them from the Holderness. For the next five seasons 
the sport at Chevy Chase was perhaps better than at any other period. 
The Hunt staff was well horsed, the hounds were keen as well as good-look- 
ing, and the Fields were large and enthusiastic. 

To-day, the Chevy Chase Club is almost more of a golf club than a 
Hunt club, but at that time the hunting was the first consideration. 
Arrangements were made to stable at the Club not only the hunters of 
members but those of visiting sportsmen, while everything was done to 
attract those whose hunting seasons had closed in the North, and during 

23 



THE CHEVY CHASE 

Mr. Moore's Mastership it was no uncommon sight to see a large and well 
turned-out Field. The Master, who had poor luck at raising puppies, was 
forced to rely on yearly drafts from England, and with the able assistance 
of Robert Curran, his huntsman, kept the standard of his pack at the 
high level which he had set for himself until 1 905, when he resigned, and 
took the hounds, which were his property, to his farm near Warrenton, 
Virginia. For a while things looked black, but through the exertions of 
Mr. Gist Blair and Mr. Charles H. L. Johnston, hunting was revived again. 

Mr. Johnston, who was a firm believer in American hounds, got some 
ten couples of this variety, and during the season of 1905-06 showed fair 
sport. He had an uphill game to play, and received but little support from 
the visiting element in his Field, but while his hounds were a very nonde- 
script lot, being gathered from widely scattered private kennels, and were 
amenable to very little discipline, yet his Hunt staff continued to be well 
mounted and turned out, and many excellent days' hunting were enjoyed 
by those of the members who still followed the fortunes of the pack. 

By vote of the Board of Governors, in the spring of 1 906, it was re- 
solved not to continue the support of the pack, owing to the small numbers 
of the Fields which followed ; but, when the autumn came on, and other 
hounds began to hunt, the old feeling revived ; so, in the fall of 1 906, 
Mr. Clarence Moore was persuaded to again resume the Mastership. 

The country about Washington is very good, and as the open season is 
a long one and foxes fairly plentiful, there is no reason why fox-hunting 
should not flourish indefinitely in that neighborhood. 



24 



I 



The Deep Run Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR - Confederate gray 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, Confederate gray collar and facings 

MASTER J. St. George Bryan. Esq. 

SECRETARY James A. Graves, Esq., Westmoreland Club, Richmond, Va. 
HUNTSMAN - Clarence HaU 

HON. WHIPPERS-IN \ '''• ^'^" Potts. Esq. 

( 2nd, Edward Harris, Esq. 

HOUNDS - - 1 5couples, English 

KENNELS Deep Run Hunt Club. Henrico County. Va. 

POST-OFFICE Richmond, Va. 

DAYS OF MEETING Saturdays and two bye-days a week 

LENGTH OF SEASON - October 1st to April 1st 



FOX-HUNTING in Henrico County, around Richmond, and in 
Chesterfield County, just across the James River — the Deep Run 
country — is almost as old as the Colony itself, for a settlement 
called Henricus was founded where Richmond now stands the year follow- 
ing the foundation at Jamestown, and ever since that time hounds have been 
run over the fields and through the woods around the present capital of 
Virginia. 

There were no organized clubs in Virginia before the war between the 
States ; a fact easily accounted for when one remembers that every country 
house in the State was practically a clubhouse open to the friends of its 
owner. Nearly every country gentleman maintained a pack of hounds of 
some sort, and hunted whenever his fancy walled, so that a gentleman of 
sporting proclivities could make a round throughout Virginia and hunt almost 
every day with a different pack. During and after the war this state of 

25 



THE DEEP RUN 

things passed away, and the late sixties found but a remnant of the many 
packs that had flourished as late as '61. 

Poverty held down sport then, but in spite of the fact that mere existence 
was a struggle, many a country gentleman still maintained a hound or two 
and, as in the early days in England, joined his neighbors in assembling a pack 
and hunting the red and gray fox. Up to 1 885 this system of hunting pre- 
vailed, and it was only with the advent of a number of English settlers, for 
the most part younger sons of English gentlemen who came to Virginia to 
farm, that hunt clubs began to be formed. 

The Deep Run Hunt, proper, might be termed an English institution, for 
it was fostered by Mr. Blacker, a wealthy Irishman, who owned "Chantilly," 
just outside of Richmond, by Major Hancock and Captain Hancock, two 
Englishmen, sons-in-law of Mr. Blacker, by Mr. P. A. S. Brine, British 
Vice-Consul to Virginia, Mr. Leathley, an Irishman, Mr. Clarke, an English- 
man, and Dr. Tritton, an Englishman. Of course, these were but a few of 
the members of the club, the majority of whom were Virginians, but it was 
certainly due to English influence that Deep Run was put upon a firm foun- 
dation. Major Hancock was the first Master, and the club had no club- 
house proper, but met -twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday, at 
" Chantilly," where the hounds were kenneled. 

After three years of this sort of life, the club grew to some fifty members, 
and secured a clubhouse just off the Broad Street Road, half a mile from 
" Chantilly." The house was primitive and small, but the sport furnished was 
exceedingly good. Major Hancock returning to England, Captain Hancock, 
his brother, took over the hounds, and shortly thereafter the present clubhouse 
near the Hermitage Road was secured. This is large and commodious, with 
an excellent mile track adjoining it and a first-rate steeplechase course near-by. 

The club now has in the neighborhood of two hundred and fifty resident 
and non-resident members, the President being Mr. Ormond Young. The 
season begins each year about the 1 st of November, and continues without 
interruption until the I st of April, the weather being such that scarcely a 
day is lost from hunting. For a number of years an American pack was 
maintained, but of late an English pack has been purchased, and only Eng- 

26 



THE DEEP RUN 

lish hounds are now used. There is a drag-hunt every Saturday, and at 
least two bye-days during the week when foxes are hunted in Chesterfield 
County, across the James River, and in the upper end of Henrico County. 
Those who have carried the Master's horn for Deep Run are Major Han- 
cock, Captain Hancock, Dr. Tritton, Mr. H. C. Beattie, Mr. Allen Potts, 
and Mr. J. St. George Bryan. 

The country hunted is for the most part open, although there are good 
bits of woodland here and there. The fences are only fairly high, but there 
are found wide ditches and a good lot of brooks throughout the runs. The 
horses best suited to the country are good, strong, quiet half-breds who can 
jump and gallop well. A rattle-brained thoroughbred would prove a most 
unsatisfactory mount at Deep Run. The landowners are good sportsmen, 
always most obliging, and are willing to do all they can to further the sport, 
in many instances cutting their wire and putting up rails in order to allow the 
Hunt to cross their fields. 

The accommodations for visiting sportsmen are excellent, there being plenty 
of amusements of all sorts to provide entertainment on non-hunting days, and 
good hotels. Provender is cheap and stabling abundant. 

The Club gives two race meetings annually, one in the spring and one in 
the fall, to which the admission is strictly by invitation. The colors of the 
club are cardinal red and silver gray, the colors of the Confederacy. 



27 



The Elkridge Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Old gold 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, scarlet facings, old gold collar 

MASTER Edward A. Jackson, Esq. 

SECRETARY Graeme TumbuU, Esq., Woodbrook, Baltimore County, Md. 

HUNTSMAN Leo Gardell 

WHIPPER-IN Elmer Berlin 

HOUNDS 30 couples, half-bred English and American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Woodbrook, Baltimore County, Md. 

DAYS OF MEETING Wednesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON October 1st to April 20th 



WHILE Philadelphia can perhaps boast of having more packs 
of hounds within easy reach than any other city in America ; 
the capital of Maryland, lying only some seventy-five miles to 
the south, has every reason to be proud of the two hunt clubs which are 
practically composed of Baltimore citizens. The older of these, the Elkridge 
Hunt Club, to give it its full name, was organized in 1 878 through the efforts 
of a little group of sportsmen who had been in the habit of taking their sport with 
each other's hounds pretty much as it came, and wathout any definite fixtures. 
On March 6th of that year, they formed themselves into an incorporated 
organization for the furtherance of fox-hunting, and asked Mr. Murray Han- 
son, one of the most enthusiastic of their number, to act as Master of Hounds. 
This he did, and until his resignation in 1 880, showed that his election was 
fully justified. Mr. William T. Prick filled the gap for the follow^ing season, 
which was one of great importance to the new club ; for it was during that 
year that Mr. George S. Brown and his son, Mr. Alexander Brown, began 
to hunt with the Elkridge. 

28 



THE ELKRIDGE 

These two gentlemen had done a good bit of hunting in England, and 
were most energetic in their efforts to improve the home pack. In the au- 
tumn of 1 880, Mr. Brown, Senior, was elected President of the Club, while 
his son was elected Master at the beginning of the following season, serving 
in that capacity until 1 884, when Mr. T. Swann Latrobe succeeded him. 

Up to 1 884 the pack had consisted of some fifteen couples of native Amer- 
ican hounds picked up from various sources throughout the state; but on his 
accession to office, the new Master promptly imported a draft from England, 
finding them more easily handled than the home-bred product. Mr. Latrobe 
remained in office until 1 893, and by his unflagging efforts to improve his 
hounds, not only furnished very good sport, but left the pack in far better 
condition than it had ever been before. 

On his resignation, Mr. Alexander Brown was re-elected, and for two 
years continued to work along much the same lines as his predecessor ; and 
then finding himself unable to spare the time, he resigned. 

The Mastership was filled in 1 895 by Mr. G. T. Hopkins, Jr., who was 
able to act for one season only, when Mr. Samuel E. George succeeded 
him, the latter remaining at the head of affairs until 1 900 ; when the present 
M. F. H., Mr. Edward A. Jackson was elected. 

All hunting men know that frequent changes in the Mastership of any 
pack are not good for it, no matter how much pains each succeeding man 
takes. Few men think alike when it comes to the question of hound-breed- 
ing, and it takes a long period of constant study and work along the same 
lines to bring about the best results. Thus it was that Mr. Jackson found 
that the quality of the hounds in the kennels had somewhat deteriorated, nor 
had their noses been improved by the running of drags from time to time, 
but he set about his task with a will, and by a judicious mixture of English 
and American blood, he has now a pack which if not the equal in looks and 
levelness of the best in the country, has made for itself a very good reputa- 
tion in the matter of work. 

Mr. Jackson is lucky in having a most excellent huntsman, Leo Gardell, 
who has been most painstaking and skilful in his kennel management, and 
the thirty odd couples now in the EJkridge kennels are a well-mannered, 

29 



THE ELKRIDGE 

keen, hard-working lot, which show the members of the Hunt sport second 
to none. Mr. Jackson writes that he finds that the cross-bred hound, with 
perhaps a predominance of English blood in his veins, seems to be most ad- 
mirably suited to his country, an opinion which is borne out by another Bal- 
timore Master, Mr. Redmond C. Stewart, whose pack, bred along somewhat 
the same lines, hunt a very similar country. 

There are many Masters in the South today who think that the " pure- 
blooded American hound," as they term it, shows the best sport, and there 
are some who find that the English hound, bred along orthodox lines, works 
equally well; but it is perhaps worthy of note that three of the great packs 
in the South, if we may class the Radnor at Philadelphia with them, have 
come to find that a judicious admixture of blood, producing a hound with 
the size, bone, and muscle of the English, and the beautiful voice and nose 
of his American progenitors, is best suited to the existing conditions. 

The authors, both of them English hound men, are of the humble opin- 
ion that this admission on the part of men accustomed to hunt with Ameri- 
can hounds is but the first step in the change which they feel sure wall 
eventually come to all those packs which are regularly kept for the purpose 
of showing sport across country to fair-sized Fields, and not to a few in- 
dividuals who are satisfied to hear their hounds work and to see them at 
intervals, caring nothmg for their collective work as a pack. 

In 1888, the Club purchased property at Woodbrook in Baltimore 
County, some six miles north of Baltimore, erecting there in the same year a 
clubhouse, stables, and kennels. The clubhouse has been improved and 
added to from time to time, until it is now one of the best, if not the best. 
Hunt clubhouse in the United States. The landowners are all very fa- 
vorably inclined, and hunting about Baltimore, with two such clubs as the 
Green Spring Valley and the Elkridge, is as good as may be found any- 
where. 



30 




A I 



'., M.r.n. iQoo- 




IIL N [^.MAN 



The Endean Beagles 

(MISS BIRD'S) 

DISTINCTIVE UNIFORM Dark green habit, Canary waistcoat. Hunt buttons 

MASTER Miss Edith H. Bird 

HUNTSMAN The Master 

HON WHIPPERS-IN ' '*^' ^'^^ Katharine Roosevelt 

( 2nd, Miss Helen Homans 

HOUNDS 12 couples, 16-inch beagles 

KENNEl^ AND POST-OFFICE East Walpole, Norfolk County, Mass. 

DAYS OF HUNTING Monday. Wednesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON September 1st to December 1st 



IN 1901. Mr. Charles S. Bird of East Walpole, Norfolk County. 
Massachusetts, formed a pack which has now developed into one of 
two regular organizations of their kind in America managed and 
hunted entirely by women. In England and Scodand there are one or two 
packs of harriers, and in Ireland a pack of foxhounds, which have a woman 
as Master ; but the Endean and the " Castle Hill," in Albemarle County, 
Virginia, are, at the present time, the only packs of that description on this 
side of the water. 

Beginning in much the same way as the Middlesex Hunt — with a few 
couples of beagles, kept for his own and his friends' amusement, Mr. Bird 
began to hunt the country around East Walpole quite regularly, at first two 
and then three days a week. Drag-hunting was adopted as being the best 
means of getting a gallop, although the hounds were, and still are, hunted on 
hares towards the close of the season. As anyone who has enjoyed the 
experience knows, a 1 6-inch beagle can run a well-laid drag line at a pretty 
good pace, and Mr. Bird soon began to have followers from among his 
friends and neighbors. 

31 



THE ENDEAN BEAGLES 

Up to 1 905, he continued to hunt the hounds, and then, being too busy to 
give them his best attention, his sister, Miss Edith H. Bird, took up the task, 
and has continued to hunt them herself ever since. 

Miss Bird, with the idea of making her sex predominant in the Hunt, 
persuaded two of her friends. Miss Katharine Roosevelt and Miss Helen 
Homans, to act as whippers-in; positions which they have filled very ably 
in the past three years. The pack has been gradually increased by impor- 
tation and breeding, till at the present writing there are twelve couples of 
the little hounds in the kennels. 

Miss Bird's country, which lies some ten miles away from the Norfolk 
Hunt kennels, is like most typical New England countries. Small enclosures, 
fenced in by fair-sized stone walls, make the jumping pretty trappy, and it 
takes a clever horse to follow the pack through some of the runs. The 
members of the Norfolk Hunt frequently ride over from Medfield and enjoy 
a day behind the beagles, while Miss Bird has a small Field of her own. 
The pack is turned out in tlie most workmanlike manner — huntsman and 
whippers-in wearing dark green habits with yellow waistcoats. The Master 
has always carried the horn herself, never allowing her kennel huntsman to 
do anything beyond laying the drag. 

At this time of wnriting there is some talk of Miss Bird's resignation as 
Master. Whether or not this is done, the authors of this book feel that 
a Hunt managed by such good sportswomen deserves a place in a volume 
which is recording the Hunts of the United States and Canada. 



32 



The Essex Hounds 

(MR. PFIZER'S) 

DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Orange velvet 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, orange facings 

MASTER Charles Pfizer, Esq. 

SECRETARY _ J. C. Wilmerding, Esq. 

HUNTSMAN ~ _ _ William Howard 

WHIPPERS-IN - - - \ '**• ^™ '^^^^°^ 

I 2nd, Larry Dickinson 

HOUNDS - 35 couples. English 

KENNEl^ AND POST-OFFICE Gladstone, N. J. 

DAYS OF MEETING -- Wednesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON - - \ October 1st to January 1st 

( March 1st to April 15 th 

J^ BOUT the time that Messrs. Skinner and Donahue were hunt- 
/ ^ ing their hounds at Hackensack, N. J. — in the late seventies * — 
JL j^ another group of sportsmen formed what eventually developed 
into the Essex County Hunt at Montclair, New Jersey. 

The hunting began with beagles, and a little later a pack of harriers was 
procured and hunted up to the end of 1 879 under the Mastership of Mr. F. M. 
Wheeler. This proved so satisfactory that in 1 880 a permanent organization 
was effected; kennels were built at West Orange, N. J., and a draft of English 
foxhounds was procured from the Montreal Hunt. The supporters of the 
Hunt being men of limited time, drag-hunting was the form of sport chosen, 
and in fact the country is hardly suitable for the best results in fox-hunting, 
as much of it is absolutely unrideable; and then, too, the coverts are very large 
and the supply of foxes is limited. 

* See Chapter on The Meadow Brook. 



THE ESSEX 

Mr. H. N. Munn was elected Master of the Essex County Hunt and re- 
mained in office during 1 880 and 1 88 1 , when he was followed by Mr. C. 
A. Heckscher, who held the country till 1 883. From 1 884 to 1 888, Mr. E. 
P. Thebaud was the ruling spirit, and finally Mr. J. A. Stewart was elected 
and remained in office till 1 890, when the hounds were taken over by the 
present Master, Mr. Charles Pfizer. 

Mr. Stewart was the last M. F. H. to hold office under the original organ- 
ization, for when the present Master took the hounds they became his per- 
sonal property, and although Mr. Pfizer accepts a small subscription from 
his Field, the Essex Hunt has been practically a private pack since 1 890. 
Speaking of the Hunt since that period, Mr. Pfizer has kindly furnished the 
information quoted, as follows : 

" When I took over the hounds, I dropped the word ' County * from the 
fixture card and called it the Essex Hunt, as I gave up the former territory 
throughout Essex county and hunted in Morris and Somerset counties. 

" My present kennels are at Gladstone, N. J., and the county line between 
Morris and Somerset counties runs through my place. During the first five 
years of my Mastership I changed my base of operations several times, and 
the pack has always had good active following ; but the present location 
is a really satisfactory one, and I hope to continue to stay here for niany 
years. The country is not too far from New York and is an attractive point 
for suburban residences. Our Fields average some twenty-five men on 
regular days, with perhaps ten or fifteen more on holidays and gala occa- 
sions. Sometimes there are a few ladies in the Field, but we have no regular 
followers of the fair sex, as the country is too trying, and the distances to 
the meets and back to the kennels, or to their respective homes, too far to 
warrant an active participation in the sport." 

Mr. Pfizer's country is mostly hill and dale — some of it very rough to 
ride over. This is the main objection to fox-hunting ; and although when 
the snow has fallen, the hounds are sometimes taken out after foxes, it is not, 
as a rule, a successful experiment. As we all know, no drag pack can show 
good sport fox-hunting, and as Mr. Pfizer's hounds are primarily draghounds 
they are, of course, no exception to this rule. 

34 




CHARLES PFIZER, ESQ., M.F.H. 





Hl'NT STAFF AND HliUNDS 




JN THE \VA\ UO.Ml:. 



THE ESSEX 

The drag-hunting is very good. Lines are laid in the valleys, which are 
grassland and good going, the fences for the most part being post-and-rails, 
with here and there a stone wall sandwiched in, and a well-schooled, tem- 
perate horse has been found to be best suited to the country. 

The landowners are good sportsmen and encourage the hunting, turning out 
in goodly numbers on points of vantage to see the Hunt on a holiday. As 
yet, they do not participate, for lack of suitable mounts and because of inex- 
perience, but one can never tell what future years will bring forth, and the 
Master may yet have the pleasure of seeing them in the Field. 

In 1 90 1 , and during the four following seasons, Mr. Pfizer took a few 
couples of his draghounds to Southampton, Long Island. They were hunted 
there, in September and October, with moderate success, until 1 906, when, 
finding that more satisfactory hunting could be obtained in the home country, 
Mr. Pfizer gave up this short autumn season on Long Island; the result 
being the organization of the Suffolk County Hunt, which now hunts that 
country. 

As this article goes to press, the following note of interest is received from 
Mr. Pfizer: 

" I am now keeping a separate pack of English foxhounds for hunting native 
foxes, which are on the increase, owing to careful stocking of some coverts 
every spring ; and if the poor beasts do not fall a prey to the local gunners, 
active fox-hunting after the real article — not a bagman — will be finally estab- 
lished in our section. I am trying to work up some general interest among the 
landowners, and have every hope that it will be a success in future years." 



35 



The Genesee Valley Hunt 

(MAJOR WADSWORTH'S HOUNDS) 

DISTINCTIVE UNIFORM Blue coat, green collar, buff facings, 

EVENING DRESS - Scarlet coat, green collar 

MASTER - Major W. Austin Wadsworth 

SECRETARY - H. V. Colt, Esq.. Geneseo, N. Y. 

HUNTSMAN George Poole 

{1 St. John Mahoney 
2nd, James Totten 
3rd, Walter Rebban 

HOUNDS 27 couples, English 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE - Geneseo, N. Y. 

DAYS OF MEETING Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON - October 15th to February 1st 



IN the last ten years of the eighteenth century, General James S. 
Wadsworth came from Connecticut to the Genesee Valley in western 
New York, and about this time the Fitzhughs moved to the same region 
from the South, bringing with them all the southerner's fondness for the 
sport of fox-hunting. The Wadsworths have increased their property 
holdings from year to year, each generation doing its utmost to preserve 
them. 

The farmers in the "Valley" had owned and hunted foxhoimds for some 
time, but it was not until 1 876 that the Genesee Valley Hunt was formed, 
and since that time Major William Austin Wadsworth of Geneseo, N. Y., 
has been the Master. 

The Genesee Valley Hunt is, and has been since its beginning, Major 
Wadsworth's private Hunt. He owns the hounds, the kennels, the majority of 
the coverts, and defrays all expenses of every kind, never taking any sub- 
scriptions, except to the damage fund, and the Field may be called Major 

36 




-l*. 



MAJOR W. AUSTIN WADSWORTH, M.F.H. 



THE GENESEE VALLEY 

Wadsworth's guests in every sense of the word, and can hardly be termed a 
club. 

Major Wadsworth did not advertise his meets or issue regular cards until 
1880, and since that time the hounds have been out always twice, and 
generally three times a week during the season, which lasts from October 
15th well into February. Of course, during this time there are many 
days when the ground is dry and frozen and hunting is impossible; but the 
best of sport is often had when the ground is covered with snow, and the 
pack averages two runs a week through the season. 

The country is full of woodchuck holes, and as the Master objects to 
digging, few foxes are killed ; but they are apt to give long, hard runs before 
going to ground, and so long as they are not lost while they are above ground, 
honour is safe. 

The country hunted is a large one, although the hounds rarely go north of 
Honeoye Creek, south of Tuscarora, east of Hemlock Lake or west of 
Oatka Valley. The land is usually open — well-cultivated farms with patches 
of timber — but the uplands are cut in places by deep ravines and gullies, 
which are much more popular with the foxes than with their pursuers. The 
lowlands along the river have enormous fields, often two or three hundred 
acres in extent, so that a horse that can extend himself, as well as one that 
can climb and slide down hill, is needed. 

The local landowners compose a large percentage of the Field, and the 
farmers throughout the country are long-suffering and kindly disposed ; but 
the increase of wire fencing is such that Major Wadsworth believes the 
sport to be hopelessly doomed in the years to come, and even now, some of 
the best country, though full of foxes, is practically unrideable. 

The Genesee Valley Hunt Club was organized in 1 88 1 by " gentlemen 
who ride wdth Major Wadsworth's hounds," and is absolutely confined to 
those who have so ridden. They have nothing to do with the management 
of the hounds, but give equestrian sports on July 4th and a Horse Show in 
the autumn, and contribute to the damage fund. 

Major Wadsworth, who has been in office as Master longer than anyone 
else in America, is an ideal man for the position, an enthusiastic apostle of 

37 



THE GENESEE VALLEY 

the sport, believing that with the growing scarcity of game it is by far the 
best and most democratic country amusement. He has been much more 
anxious to interest his neighbors than to call in the outsiders, and, to use his 
own words, " would rather see a farmer's boy on a mule at a meet than the 
most elaborate creation of the London tailor." The so-called " qualifier," 
who takes his would-be steeplechaser to the meet, lets him have a look at 
the hounds and larks him over a few fences in sight of the Master in order 
to obtain a so-called "hunter's certificate" is an individual for whom he has 
no use. To quote his own remarks on the subject: 

" I don't know that the Genesee Valley Hunt is a racing club, or ever 
intends to give race meetings. I consider it a fox-hunting club. 

" I have always treated the racing people with courtesy, but as every 
Master of Hounds knows, the qualifying of hunters for steeplechase pur- 
poses is a humbug. The horses so qualified are not and never have been 
hunters, and everyone knows it. They are merely a certain class of steeple- 
chasers, a different animal, for instance, from that which should be shown in 
the prize ring as a hunter, so 1 think the best way is to keep the two things 
separate, and let the men who want to race, race ; and the men who want 
to hunt, hunt. Let each define a hunter as he chooses." 

Major Wadsworth's hatred of the qualifier is such that, to quote him 
again, " I have invented that splendid aggregation (?), the Livingston County 
Draghounds, to keep the professional dealers and racing men's jocks out of 
my Fields." 

Very different is Major Wadsworth's feeling for the men who hunt. He 
has spared neither trouble nor expense to get together a pack which will 
show them the best sport. His hounds are for the most part of pure English 
blood, although he states that some of his best have a slight infusion of the 
American in them. This, however, is so slight that no one could tell from 
looking at the hounds that it existed. In 1 880, the first draft came from the 
Meath, followed in 1 884 by a draft from Lord Fitzhardinge's, among which 
he mentions, — 

" Ruler," 1 876 ; " Viscount," " Frantic," and " Castor," 1 880 ; and 
" Vocal," 1 88 1 , as being exceptionally useful. 

38 



THE GENESEE VALLEY 

In 1 887, a new draft came from Sir Bache Cunard's, now Mr. Femie's, 
among which Major Wadsworth says there were a number of most excel- 
lent hounds, but which were rather light of tongue. To rectify this defect, 
he bred to hounds from Lord Tredegar's and from the Duke of Beaufort's, 
with good results, importing small drafts from time to time until 1 894 ; when 
a friend, CaptJiin Martin of Geneseo, picked up in England a draft from 
the Holderness, which did the pack a lot of good. With all this good 
material as a basis, Major Wadsworth has bred a pack second to none in 
America, and although it suffered badly from the rabies in 1 902, he has 
maintained its high standard of excellence. On the flags, too, he has met 
with great success, winning at Madison Square Garden in 1 899 and 1 902, 
with home-bred hounds, and in 1 906 and 1 907 with a mixed lot. 

The Hunt has never adopted scarlet coats, except for evening dress, and 
although many of the Field hunt in mufti, the older members and the Hunt 
staff still wear the dark blue coats and buff facings and waistcoats which 
have always been its uniform. 

The secret of Major Wadsworth's success is perhaps his thoughtful and 
painstaking treatment of the farmers, and the firm, though kindly manner in 
which he rules over his Field. These qualities perhaps are best epitomized 
in his " Bible," which is given below in full. 
Of the Farmer: 

" You have no business on a man's land, but are there by his sufferance 
and he is entitled to every consideration. It is no excuse that you are in a 
hurry. It is much better for the Hunt that you should be left behind than 
that a farmer should be injured. 

" If you take down a rail, put it back. If you open a gate, shut it. 

" If you break a fence, or do any damage which you cannot repair, you 
should report it at once to the responsible officers of the Hunt, that it may 
be made good. 

" Although you may feel convinced that it improves wheat to ride over 
it, the opinion is not diffused or popular ; and the fact that some fool has 
gone ahead is no excuse; it only makes matters worse. 

" The spectacle of a lot of men, following another's tracks across a wheat- 

39 



THE GENESEE VALLEY 

field and killing hopelessly the young plants, which the first man has proba- 
bly injured but slightly, is too conducive to profanity to be edifying in any 
community. 

"You may think that the honest fanner deems it a privilege to leave his 
life of luxurious idleness and travel around half the night in the mud for 
horses which have got out, or spend days sorting the sheep which have got 
mixed by your leaving his gates open or fences down : you are mistaken ; 
he doesn't. 

Of the Master: 

" The M. F. H. is a great and mystic personage, to be lowly, meekly and 
reverently looked up to, helped, considered and given the right of way at 
all times. His ways are not as other men's ways, and his knowledge and 
actions are not to be judged by their standards. All that can be asked of 
him is that he furnish good sport ; and as long as he does that, he is amen- 
able to no criticism, subject to no law and fettered by no conventionality 
while in the field. 

" He is supposed by courtesy to know more about his own hounds than 
outsiders; and all hallooing, calling, and attempts at hunting them by others, 
are not only very bad manners, but are apt to spoil sport. 

" As a general rule, he can enjoy your conversation and society more 
when not in the field, with the hounds, riders, foxes and damages on his 
mind. 

" N. B. The proffer of a flask is not ' conversation,' within the meaning 
of the above. 

Of the Fox: 

" Don't tag after the first whipper-in and make one of a line of sentries 
around a covert. How can a fox break cover, if you do ? 

" Keep your mouth shut when you see a fox until he is well away, then, 
if you are sure it is the hunted fox, stand still, as nearly on his line as possi- 
ble, and yell for all you are worth. 

" Don't cap on the first hounds, but let the huntsman bring up the pack. 

" Don't gallop after the fox by yourself : if you caught him alone he might 
bite you. 

40 



THE GENESEE VALLEY 

" Don't give tongue on a woodchuck : it will cause you humiliation. There 
is a difference in the tails. 

Of the Hounds: 

" Keep away from them at all times and every time. Even if you con- 
sider them worthless, the Master may be quaintly indifferent to your opinion; 
and as the quietest horse will kick at a strange dog, and the stupidest dog 
distrust a strange horse, keep away. 

" Stand still at a check and give them a chance to work. No hound can 
hunt while figuring the odds of being bitten, kicked or stepped on; and if the 
Field keep pressing them in any direction, however slowly, the benighted 
beasts are capable of thinking there is a rational cause for it. 

" Keep away from the huntsman also, that he may be in full view and 
the hounds see him and follow his movements and signals. 

" Don't get between him and the whippers-in on the road. There are 
miles of it, before and behind, where your equestrianism will be more appre- 
ciated. 

Of the Rider: 

" Don't say ' 'ware horse ' to the hound, but ' 'ware hound ' to the horse. 

" It is never any excuse that you cannot hold your horse. You have no 
more business to bring out a horse you cannot hold than you have a biter 
or a kicker. If you cannot hold him, go home ! 

" Never follow a man closely, particularly over a jump. If he should fall 
when alone, you might kill him while helpless. 

" Take your own line and keep it. 

" Everybody is supposed to be entitled to the panel in front of him. If 
you don't like yours, you must not take another man's till your turn." 

A copy of the above, together with a fine map of the country, showing 
every road, lane, covert, shoeing-forge, etc., is given to each member of 
Major Wadsworth's Field, and the rules stated therein are enforced to the 
letter, though it is scarcely ever necessary for the Master to speak a second 
time, so beloved is he of his followers. 

The authors feel that they can hardly say enough of Major Wadsworth's 
interest in the welfare of the dwellers in the " Valley." 

4f 



THE GENESEE VALLEY 

Owning, as he does, such a vast estate, he is placed in almost a paternal 
relation towards his tenants and neighbors, who value very highly his friend- 
ship and kindly counsel on all matters, agricultural and otherwise. 

All fox-hunters who have the pleasure of knowing the Master of the 
Genesee Valley will, we feel sure, agree with us in thinking that no more 
suitable dedication could be found than that which heads this volume. 



1 



The Grafton Hounds 

(MR. SMITH'S) 

DISTINCTIVE UNIFORM Gray 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, gray coUar 

MASTER Harry W. Smith, Esq., Grafton, Mass. 

HUNTSMAN The Master 

WHIPPERS-IN \ \'\ ^•,'^'^^ 

( 2nd, N. Elsey 

HOUNDS 1 5 couples, American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Grafton, Worcester County, Mass. 

DAYS OF MEETING Three days a week 

LENGTH OF SEASON August 1st to January 1st 



THE Grafton Hounds, which are a private pack, the property of 
Mr. Harry W. Smith, were first established in 1904. The 
Grafton Country Club, which was in some ways the excuse for 
the Grafton Hounds, had been formed some years earlier, and among the 
other sports encouraged there, fox-hunting took a prominent place. 

Mr. Smith, at one time an extensive breeder of wire haired fox-terriers, 
and later an amateur trainer and jockey of much note, seemed to be ad- 
mirably fitted for the position of M. F. H., and when he offered the Club 
the use of his small private pack — to be called the Grafton Hounds — they 
were most willing to accept. 

Becoming very much interested in the American type of foxhounds, Mr. 
Smith endeavored, in 1 904, to rejuvenate the Brunswick Fur Club, under 
the name of the Brunswick Foxhound Club, and to make its aim the establish- 
ing of an American type of foxhound. Men like Thomas Hitchcock, Jr., 
James Maddux and General Edward Morrell were induced to join the Club, 
and Mr. Smith brought before a meeting the following motion : — 

" Voted, that the standard of American Foxhounds as adopted by the 

43 



THE GRAFTON 

Club, April 1 7th, 1 894, be construed by the Club to call for that type of 
hound which shall show ' class ; ' which word signifies the highest percent- 
age of the necessary qualities needed in foxhounds for field use in America. 

" Voted, that the Judges, duly authorized by the Brunswick Foxhound 
Club, be advised of this ruling and the same be enrolled in the records of 
the Club, and when the American Foxhound standard is next printed, same 
be added in a paragraph before the Summary." 

In a letter to the Rider and Tfrioer, setting forth the advantages of this 
motion, Mr. Smith stated, — " If this rule is going to hurt anyone it will hurt 
me, and I am perfectly walling it should. I can speak very plainly on the 
matter, as last year I won a number of ribbons, — more, I believe, than any 
other exhibitor, — at the Brunswick Fur Club Foxhound Show, The rac- 
ing type is, in my opinion, more typical of the American hound than the 
half or three-quarter bred English hound, such as McGregor's 'Jack.' I 
am running these hounds continually in the field, and I am perfectly frank in 
saying that the lighter type, such as my ' Sinner,' Walker's ' Alsie,' and 
Hitchcock's 'Judy* seem to me to be preferable for work. 

'.' At the Trials last year (1 903), which were so hotly contested, the heavy 
type of hound was not placed. At the first Hound Show, E. H. Walker 
entered ' Alsie ' and she was turned out without a ribbon. At the same 
show Mr. Hitchcock entered ' Crocker,' who was similarly disposed of. 

" Here are two breeders who own foxhounds, not to look at, but to kill 
foxes, which is the crowning point of all. Shall we hold to the heavy 
English type, or shall we go to the racing type, the type which is the 
successful hound to kill a fox, and acknowledged so by all and proven so 
by our own trials ? I shall also put before the Club the following motion, 
in case the members decide that it is inadvisable to construe the standard as 
I have asked above : 

" ' Voted, that a Committee composed of Dr. A. C. Heffenger, Thomas 
Hitchcock, Jr., R. D. Perry, J. K. Maddux, R. F. Perkins and Harry W. 
Smith, members of the Brunswick Foxhound Club, E. H. Walker of Ken- 
tucky and C. Floyd Huff of Hot Springs, Arkansas, be appointed to formu- 
late a standard for foxhounds, and the standard so formulated by them is to 

44 



THE GRAFTON 

be considered as adopted by the Brunswick Foxhound Club by a vote 
authorizing the Committee.* 

" It is far better to right an error at the beginning than it is at the end. The 
Brunswick Foxhound Club, in the past, has simply been known about New 
England .... and the fact that its standard was adopted by the American 
Kennel Club, and that the Brunswick Foxhound Club can authorize a stand- 
ard is known to few. This being the situation, it seems to me wise to allow 
the Southerners, who have put more time, thought and care into the breeding 
of hounds for killing the fox than all the rest combined, to have their type 
acknowledged." 

This letter brought forth a storm of criticism from the supporters of the 
English hound, who, naturally enough, claimed that English hounds, which 
had been bred to the game vnih more care and for a longer period than 
any in the world, could and did kill foxes in America as well as in Eng- 
land ; to which Mr. Smith answered that he very much doubted the actual 
kills by any English pack on this side of the water. 

It would be time thrown away to go into a detailed account of the 
argument which followed in the columns of the Rider and Tiriver. To cut 
a long story short, the result was the Foxhound Match which took place in 
the Piedmont Valley, Virginia, in November 1 905, in which Mr. Smith's 
home-bred pack represented the American hound and the Middlesex Fox- 
hounds, a draft pack — the English. 

Neither pack killed and, although the Grafton hounds were awarded the 
victory, neither Master altered his opinion as to the comparative merit of 
the two types. 

While these opinions of Mr. Smith's are not directly history of the Graf- 
ton, they are given because they show the aims of its Master, who has kept 
on breeding to a distinct type year after year, and has produced a pack 
which, for similarity of size, conformation and color it would be hard to 
beat. Whether or not they are the true type of American hound it is diffi- 
cult to say. Mr. Smith contends that they are, but in a breed where the 
individuals differ so wadely, who shall say which is the best ? 

The Brunswack Foxhound Club, an organization made up of owners of fox- 

45 



THE GRAFTON 

hounds throughout New England, with a scattering of outside members, has 
done, and is doing, the best it can ; but no two judges think alike, and so long 
as American hound men keep coming to the owners of English hounds for 
a bit of their good blood there will be no definite standard. 

In 1 905, just prior to the Match, a Hound Show was held at Grafton, 
the classification being similar to that of the Peterboro Hound Show in 
England, and the arrangements much the same on a small scale. There 
were a few American hounds, and only two English packs — the Norfolk 
and the Middlesex — were represented ; but the Show, which was held in 
conjunction with the Grafton Country Club Horse Show, was a distinct 
success, and led to the holding, in the following year, of the National Fox- 
hound Show at South Lincoln, which has now become an annual fixture. 

Mr. Smith sold about six couples of his hounds to the Orange County 
Hunt, and they were kept in the South and hunted in their Virginia country 
with great success, while he retained a sufficient number of bitches to breed 
his present pack, which consists of fifteen couples. These hounds are Bel- 
voir tan in color and are some twenty inches in height at the shoulder — 
about the size of English harriers. 

The home country surrounding the Grafton kennels in Massachusetts, is 
the worst possible for fox-hunting. Very rough pastures, enclosed by big, 
ragged stone walls, furnishing the only open country, and a series of immense 
swamps and woodlands make it impossible to follow hounds fairly. 

Mr. Smith thinks that the best type of horse is a well-mannered, clean- 
bred, "which cannot only stand off and jump, but also stand still and jump, and 
creep if necessary." The attitude of the landowners is most satisfactory, 
and there never has been, in Grafton, Sutton, Millbury, or the adjoining 
townships, anything but the pleasantest feeling toward the Hunt. 

In the autumn of 1 907, Major W. Austin Wadsworth, Master of the 
Genesee Valley Hunt, offered to loan to Mr. Smith a portion of his country, 
lying some fifteen miles from his kennels, and known as the " Upland 
country," and this proposition Mr. Smith very gladly accepted, taking his 
hounds there for the season of 1 907-8, and making his headquarters at the 
Big Tree Inn at Geneseo. The Grafton went out on alternate days wath 

46 



THE GRAFTON 

the Genesee Valley, thus giving the members and subscribers a chance to 
hunt every day in the week. This plan worked well, and Mr. Smith writes 
that he intends to go there another season, after finishing his cubbing in 
Massachusetts. 

TTie Genesee " Upland country " is chiefly grass and pasture, with some 
large woodlands and almost no plough ; post-and-rail fences, interspersed 
with a few stump-fences and very little wnre, forming the majority of the 
enclosures, and it requires a bold, fast, big-jumping horse to live with hounds. 

To the Master of the Grafton is due, more than to any other one man in 
the United States, the credit for a long needed organization, as he was in- 
strumental in calling a meeting which led to the formation of The Masters 
of Foxhounds Association of America. 



47 



The Green River Hunt 



MASTER Frank Sherman Peer, Esq. 

SECRETARY Wentworth C. Bacon, Esq., Greenfield, Mass. 

HUNTSMAN The Master 

HON.WHIPPERS-IN \ '*'\ ^r""" w^i^-^'T' ^' 

( Ana, 1 nomas W. K.ing, bsq. 

HOUNDS - 1 2 couples, English 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Greenfield, Mass. 

DAYS OF MEETING Three days a week 

LENGTH OF SEASON September 1 st to December 1st 



EARLY in the spring of 1907, some lovers of fox-hunting, Mr. 
Frank Sherman Peer, Mr. Wentworth C. Bacon, and Mr. 
Thomas W. King, who were living in Greenfield, Massachu- 
setts, determined to start a small pack of hounds to hunt the country lying in 
the valley of the Green River. 

Greenfield is a great centre for the sheep-raising farmers of Massachusetts, 
and the country, which is the upper end of the Connecticut Valley and 
comparatively free from wire, affords a pretty good opportunity for fox- and- 
drag-hunting. Foxes are very plentiful, but as is the case in most parts of 
Massachusetts, coverts are so large and dense that it is practically impossible 
to follow hounds closely for any distance, a condition which makes a certain 
amount of drag-hunting necessary to satisfy the demand for sport. Mr. Peer, 
the M. F. H., and Mr. Bacon, who are the leading spirits in this little or- 
ganization, secured a couple of drafts of good working hounds from the Mid- 
dlesex, and, if they have luck, should in time breed a good pack from these. 
Even at present, they manage to give sport to a small but enthusiastic Field 
of ladies and gentlemen, hunting both fox and drag. All things must have a 
beginning, and the Green River Hunt has two qualifications which ought to 

48 




FR..\NK SHERMAN PEER, ESQ., M.F.H. 



THE GREEN RIVER 

lead to much improvement in the future, to wit : plenty of enthusiasm and a 
good country. 

The Master himself is a warm supporter of English hounds, and having 
made a considerable study of them in their home country, has imported a 
great many for the other Masters in America. He is an advocate of their 
use in the field in this country, holding, in common with many others, that 
their lack of cold-scenting ability is more than made up for by their easy 
control while at work. 

Mr. Peer was chosen to act as Judge of English foxhounds at the first 
National Hound Show, 1 906. 



49 



The Green Spring Valley Hunt 

DISTINCTIVE COLLAR -:.-..- -- - Green 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, green collar 

MASTER Redmond C. Stewart, Esq. 

SECRETARY Randolph Barton, Jr., Esq., Baltimore, Md. 

HUNTSMAN - '■■- ■- - :..-:-.::--. The Master 

HON. WHIPPERS-IN --.- - j J=} f'^"^^- ^°"'f' ^J^' 

( Znd, Jervis bpencer, Jr., tsq. 

KENNELMAN - - ThomasPerry 

I i/->,i TMr->o ^ 37 1-2 couples, American, with 

HOUNDS < *^ £ c- 1 L LI J 

( recent crosses or nngush blood. 

KENNELS Garrison, Md. 

RAILWAY STATION Garrison Forest Stahon, Md. 

POST-OFFICE Garrison, Md. 

DAYS OF MEETING — ■ -' Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON October 1st to April 1st 

DURING the autumn of 1 892, a number of gentlemen met in 
Baltimore, Maryland, and founded the Green Spring Valley 
Hunt. Among these were John McHenry, Randolph Barton, 
Jr., Horace White, E. Lynn Painter, Redmond C. Stewart, the present 
Master ; W. Plunket Stewart, James McK. Merryman, William B. Cockey, 
C. Morton Stewart, Jr., Robert N. Elder, William V. Elder, G. H. Stirling, 
Arthur Craddock and D. F. Savage. 

In all there was a membership of twenty-seven, most of whom were men 
in active business in Baltimore, and as this is, and always has been the case, 
every effort is made to have sport outside of regular business hours. The 
Hunt staff, too, has always been composed of members, no regular Hunt ser- 
vants having ever been employed except a kennelman, who takes charge of 

hounds in the kennels. 

50 




REDMOND C. STEWART, ESQ., II.F.H. 



THE GREEN SPRING VALLEY 

Mr. Redmond C. Stewart, who lives near the latter, was elected Master 
at the first meeting and has continued to hold that position ever since, hunt- 
ing the hounds himself during the entire period. His brother, Mr. W. 
Plunket Stewart, was the only whipper-in until 1 894, when Mr. H. Carroll 
Brown was appointed second whipper-in until 1 903 ; but in 1 899, Mr. 
Stewart appointed another whipper-in in the person of Mr. Frank A. Bonsai, 
who took Mr. Brown's place when the latter resigned, in 1 903, and Mr. 
Plunket Stewart's place on his resignation, in 1906. Mr. Jenas Spencer 
was then appointed second whipper-in and since that time only two whippers- 
in have been on the active list. 

As is the case in most southern Hunts, Mr. Stewart began by using na- 
tive hounds, believing, as he still does, that they possessed the most suitable 
qualities for fox-hunting in Maryland. After eight or ten years of experience, 
however, with these hounds, he has come to the conclusion that a certain 
amount of English blood improves the natives. 

Mr. Stewart's own words are given as follows : 

" I believe that the American hounds have the best — or the most suita- 
ble — qualities for hunting the fox in Maryland, but thinking that by a judi- 
cious cross vrith English blood a hound could be bred which would have 
just as good tongue and hunting qualities, we have used a Belvoir-bred 
hound of Mr. Charles E. Mather's named 'Glancer,' and also a son of 
Belvoir 'Dexter,' namely Belvoir 'Vampire,' and have bred this cross back 
to strong native hounds. 

" We have now, we think, a useful pack, with good voices and noses and 
much endurance, which run a fox pretty well in almost all conditions of 
weather and are better-boned, heavier hounds and more evenly-coloured than 
the old-fashioned native hounds. They also stand kennel discipline better. 
Whether they are the best hounds that can be bred for our country or not, 
I shall not be sure for some years." 

With the Green Spring Valley Hunt, cubbing begins about August I st, 
and the hounds go out three days a week at 4:30 a. m. until October 1 st, 
when the regular season opens. From then on, the Tuesday meets are at 
daybreak, and the Thursday and Saturday meets at 2:30 p. m. In addition 

51 



THE GREEN SPRING VALLEY 

to this, hounds are out all day on holidays and for a fortnight in Novem- 
ber they meet six days a week and hunt all day, as during this time most of 
the members of the Hunt take a vacation and put in two weeks of solid 
hunting. 

Foxes are fairly plentiful, and the two or three blank days during a season 
come so far apart that the continuous good sport is hardly interrupted. On 
the other hand, there are many earths in the country, and as stopping is im- 
practicable, many of the foxes found get to ground, and only a small per- 
centage are killed in the open. However, to anyone really fond of fox- 
hunting, and who cares enough about the sport to enjoy hearing and seeing 
hounds at work, the days are full of genuine pleasure. 

The greater portion of the country contains many large woodlands, and 
hounds would often be lost were they not very free of tongue. Often, however, 
in the best part of the country, they force a fox into the open, where the 
galloping is good and the jumping clean, and give the Field the finest kind 
of a run. 

As the Green Spring Valley pack is one of the best known in the coun- 
try, the authors append accounts of several runs (kindly furnished them by 
the Master), from which, perhaps, a better idea of the country and the char- 
acter of the hunting can be obtained than from any description. 

"November 18th, 1895. Met at Brick School House at 9 a.m. Found a 
large fox about 1 o'clock just west of the railway. Viewed away by the 
Field, he ran to the right of Glyndon, and to the Worthington Valley, where 
the pack split, part of it crossing the valley and the rest of it turning back 
toward the point where the fox was found. 

" As 'Logan,' one of our best hounds, was in the latter division, we followed 
them. Fox ran straight southeast for about four miles, where, being headed 
from his point by some gunners, he turned east and was pulled down in a 
bit of woodland, after about an hour and ten minutes of running. Those of 
the Field who had followed the other part of the pack got forty-five minutes 
of galloping, over a beautiful country, eventually putting their fox to ground. 
Thirty-four in the Field. 

" October 3rd, 1 896. Met at the kennels at 2:30 p.m., using ten couples 

52 



THE GREEN SPRING VALLEY 

of hounds. Drew Cockey's Wood, where we found immediately, the fox 
going due north across the Green Spring Valley and over the Dover Road 
to Worthington Valley, a six mile point. At the start, hounds got away 
from us, but we caught them in about thirty minutes, when they were brought 
to their noses, working slowly across some dry plough. Scent was very bad, 
but they persisted, and as the dew fell it improved, and getting closer to their 
fox, they went on again at a good pace. Darkness shut in upon us and we 
had to leave them running and were never able to tell what they did with 
their fox. Thirty-one in the Field. 

" Saturday, November 26th, 1 904. Met at Cockey's Gate, Worthington 
Valley, at 9:30 a.m. The day was cold and dry, with a stiff vfind blowing — 
most discouragmg for good sport — and only about twenty turned up at the 
meet. The first fox was found shortly, but as hounds were unable to force 
him out of cover, they were stopped and we drew agam, finding quickly on 
Snow Hill. This fox broke cover and ran straight for Piney Hill, thirty-eight 
minutes without a turn. From here on, the pace became furious, and the 
Field could not have kept with hounds except that the going was perfect, all 
in the open, over grass. During the next forty minutes the fox made three 
big loops, finally going to ground ; two hours and eighteen mmutes in all. 
Started with sixteen and a half couples and had fourteen couples at the earth. 
Only three of the Field finished the run, so severe was the pace, and when 
we started for the kennels, twenty-four miles away, we were a pretty tired 
lot of men and horses." 

It will be seen that in two of these runs, hounds met quite a bit after mid- 
day and, as is often the case, scent improved as nightfall drew near. When 
many of the Field are forced by business engagements to confine their hunt- 
ing to the latter part of the day, this seems a pretty successful plan, and one 
worthy of emulation by other American Hunts whose members are similarly 
situated and who would like to enjoy the better sport. Surely three or four 
hours behind foxhounds is vastly better than three-quarters of an hour with 
the drag. 

The Green Spring Valley is a subscription Hunt, v^rith a membership 
of about two hundred and forty, and now has an attractive clubhouse, with 

53 



THE GREEN SPRING VALLEY 

good kennels at Garrison Station, Maryland, some ten miles from Baltimore, 
Mr. Stewart, although a very busy man, devotes a great deal of care and 
thought to the development of his pack, and it has steadily improved under 
his management until it is now, as has been said, one of the best in the 
country. 



The Harkaway Hunt 

DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Black 

MASTER Frank M. Lowiy. Esq. 

SECRETARY F. H. Richard, Esq., Pittsburgh, Pa. 

HUNTSMAN - JackCaffrey 

WHIPPER-IN Arthur Cregan 

HOUNDS 16 couples, English and American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE McDonald. Pa. 

DAYS OF MEETING - Wednesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON September 1st to January ist 

WHILE the Hunt Clubs of Pennsylvania are among the oldest 
in the United States ; in fact, it may almost be called the 
Mother State of organized fox-hunting, yet it was not until 
1 898 that the Pittsburgh Hunt Club was formed. In the days of early 
settlement, the English officers who were stationed at Fort Duquesne must 
have hunted foxes, but they hardly rode to hounds in the same manner as 
the present residents of that locality. Fox-hunting in those days must have 
been fraught with far greater dangers than those ordmarily experienced by 
the cross-country rider. However, as we are not writing Colonial history, we 
will come back to the present. 

The Pittsburgh Hunt Club was organized in 1898, and the sportsmen 
who formed it elected Mr. Frank M. Lovsnry to the office of Master. At 
first, the kennels were at Sewickley, but in 1 900 they were moved to the 
Pittsburgh Country Club, in the suburbs of the city. Drag-hunting was carried 
on there until the beginning of 1 903, with varying popularity, but as time went 
on and the Field became educated, the need for the better sport of fox-hunt- 
ing was felt, and in the autumn of 1 903 the Pittsburgh Hunt Club was vir- 
tually disbanded, and the hounds and estabKshment moved to McDonald, 
Pennsylvania, where the present kennels are located. 

55 



THE HARKAWAY 

At the same time, a new organization, which was christened the Harkaway 
Hunt, was organized, and the following gentlemen were elected officers: 
Walter Lyons, President ; Addison M. Irwin, Secretary ; Edward McDonald, 
Treasurer, and Frank M. Lowry, M. F. H. 

The officers have varied from time to time, but Mr. Lowry has always 
held the Mastership, and it is to his unflagging energy and enthusiasm that 
the Hunt owes its present flourishing condition, and its pack of sixteen 
couples. The town of McDonald is only a short distance from Pittsburgh, 
on the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and is quite easily accessible from 
the city. The country hunted over is an open, rolling one, with small coverts 
which are plentifully supplied with foxes, and although a few drags are run 
during the season, fox-hunting proper is the more popular sport and the one 
most indulged in. 

Canadian half- or three-quarter-bred horses are used almost universally, 
having been found best suited to the climate and country. Some few horses 
have been brought up from Virginia, but they do not seem to thrive. 

The Hunt is, of course, in an embryonic condition, and its promoters hope 
that in a few more years a better pack can be established to hunt what 
promises to be a very good country. 



56 




3EIGADIEK-GENERAL ROGER D. WILLIAMS, M.F.H. 



The Iroquois Hunt 

MASTER General Roger D. Waiiams 

SECRETARY W. J. Foley, Esq.. Lexington. Ky. 

HUNTSMAN B. Stone 

HOUNDS -.- .- 10 couples, American 

KENNELS : Athens. Ky. 

POST-OFFICE - - Lexington. Ky. 

DAYS OF MEETING Fridays 

LENGTH OF SEASON September 1st to March 1st 

KENTUCKY can, perhaps, boast of more establishments devoted 
to the raising of blood-horses than any other State of the Union, 
and where there are blood-horses is generally to be found a class 
of sportsmen interested in hounds ; for, after all, one is the complement of the 
other. 

Thus it happens that Brigadier-General Roger D. Williams, the Master 
of the Iroquois Hunt, has inherited his love of sport from his father, grand- 
father and great-grandfather ; all of whom were native Kentuckians and 
maintained a pack of foxhounds. General Williams has always been a hunt- 
ing man, and while he has, at various times, imported a few English hounds, 
has always been a strong believer in, and supporter of, the native product, 
and the small pack of ten couples which is followed by the members of the 
Iroquois Hunt are all of his owm breeding. 

The Iroquois Hunt proper was founded in 1880, and for twenty-eight 
years General Williams has acted as M. F. H. 

The country hunted by him, lying about ten miles from Lexington, is for 
the most part rolling blue-grass pasture land, enclosed with rail fences and 
stone walls. The existence of many extensive breeding estabhshments pre- 
vents hunting nearer to Lexington, but has the advantage of keeping the fences 
always in good condition and free from wire. 

57 



THE IROQUOIS 

Foxes are very plentiful and the Field is almost certain of a good gallop 
over the best of footing whenever hounds go out, as the foxes hunted are 
of the red variety and as strong and game as can be desired. 

Hounds run very fast on the blue-grass and it needs a clean-bred horse, 
or one with a small infusion of cold blood, to keep with them, while the 
Kentuckians are very fond of the sport and turn out in goodly numbers, 
fifty per cent of them being ladies, most of whom ride hard and straight. 

The type of hound used by General Williams differs as greatly from the 
type of hound used at Grafton as a thoroughbred horse differs from a polo 
pony, and yet both Masters clciim to have the true type of American hound. 
The authors merely state this fact in order that their readers may decide 
for themselves which is the " American hound." 



58 



The Keswick Hunt 



HON. WHIPPERS-IN \ \'\^'^f'^^^J^'' 

( 2nd, h. H. Joslin, t 

HOUNDS - 12 couple 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Green 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, green collar and facings 

MASTER Julian Morris, Esq. 

SECRETARY Francis Lee Thurman, M. D., Keswick, 

Albemsirle County, Va. 

HUNTSMAN The Master 

KENNEL HUNTSMAN - "Tipper " Morris 

burman, M. D. 
Esq. 

4 couples, English 
8 couples, AmericJin 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Keswick, Albemarle County, Va. 

DAYS OF MEETING Tuesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON November 1st to April 15th 

THE Keswick Hunt Club is perhaps the strongest organization of 
its kind near Charlottesville, which, as has been said, is one of the 
fox-hunting centres of Virginia. 
The present Secretary, Dr. Francis Lee Thurman, who has been identi- 
fied with the Club since its early beginnings and has always been its chron- 
icler, has been kind enough to allow the authors to make use of an article 
on the history of the Hunt, written for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 
February, 1 907, from which much of the information as to dates and events 
has been drawn. 

On December 1 0th, 1 896, a number of gentlemen devoted to sport met 
at the historic home of F. M. Randolph, Esq., " Cloverflelds," and organ- 
ized themselves into a club whose objects were "social intercourse, and fox- 
and drag-hunting." 

These gentlemen, who constitute the charter members of the Club, were: 

59 



THE KESWICK 

Gary Ruffin Randolph, John Francis Chisholm, James Morris Page, Stuart 
Hanckle, Dr. Francis Lee Thurman, George W. Macon, Francis Merri- 
weather Randolph, Murray Boocock, Ford Murphy, W. L. Gochran, Gharles 
E. Dickinson, W. L. Smith, Hugh G. Dodd, Martin Grimmins, William 
Shackelford, W. Douglas Macon, Prof. Edward Echols, H. W. Greenough 
and Joseph W. Everett ; and they elected the following officers of the Kes- 
wick Hunt Glub : President, John Armstrong Ghanler ; First Vice-President, 
Hon. George W. Morris; Second Vice-President, Gol. H. W. Fuller; 
Treasurer, Murray Boocock; Secretary, Joseph W. Everett; Master of 
Hounds, Gary Ruffin Randolph; Whipper-in, Hugh G. Dodd. 

The old Manor house at " Gloverfields " was rented temporarily for a 
clubhouse and a Gommittee consisting of Messrs. Boocock, Thurman, Macon, 
Randolph and Echols was appointed to find a suitable site for a permanent 
clubhouse and grounds. 

When the next annual meeting came, little had been done. A spirit of 
vacillation rather than of progress was evident, and during the season of 
1897, had it not been for the Master, the movement might have come to 
nothing; but he kept many of the hounds on his own estate, persuaded 
members to do the same, and wheedled hound puppies out of others, accept- 
ing them in place of the annual dues. Land was purchased, a clubhouse 
built, and then the social feature became a prominent factor ; ladies being 
admitted to all Glub privileges except the franchise. 

Up to this time not much formality had been kept up in the Hunt, but 
Gol. Randolph had difficulties to surmount that were little dreamed of by 
the outsider, and to him the Keswack owes a debt of gratitude not likely to 
be soon forgotten. This was a period of financial stringency, and many and 
varied were the devices employed to raise money with which to pay off the 
mortgage on the clubhouse, etc. One of the most successful was a gymkhana 
meeting, organized by a member, Mr. Robert McMurdo, and as a result of it 
the Treasurer began to look cheerful once more. 

At the next annual meeting of the Glub, on October 25 th, 1898, 
Gol. Randolph resigned the Mastership and Mr. H. G. Dodd, who had 
been acting as Honorary Whipper-in, was elected in his stead; serving for 

60 



THE KESWICK 

one season to the entire satisfaction of the Field. He then resigned, and Col. 
Randolph again consented to carry the horn, his second Mastership continu- 
ing until the season of 1 90 1 , when the present Master, Mr. Julian Morris, 
was elected. This gentleman promptly took steps to put the hunting on a 
firmer and more modern basis. Heretofore, no uniform had been adopted by 
the Hunt, but now Master, Hunt Staff, and many of the Field turned out in 
regulation scarlet, adopting a green collar as their distinguishing badge, and 
more form and order were maintained in the field than before. 

Mr. Morris has continued to act as Master up to the present time, and 
during his regime the quality of the sport has steadily improved. The coun- 
try itself is quite ideal and the climate is such that very few days are missed 
during the regular season, which lasts from November 1 st, to April 1 5th. 

Most of the hunting area is in large estates belonging to members of, or 
subscribers to, the Hunt, and consequently such obstacles to sport as ware and 
posted land are rarely to be found. The fences here are generally timber, big 
and stiff, and require a bold jumping horse to negotiate them successfully. 

The Master maintains a large breeding establishment, and has probably 
bred and developed as many high-class hunters as anyone in America today. 
The Keswick Hunt Team has won at the National Horse Show at New 
York for the last two years, while the names of "Keswick" and "David 
Gray" are known to all the latter-day frequenters of horse shows. Inciden- 
tally, it might be said that these show winners are hunted regularly and are 
excellent performers in the field. The present pack, which is used for drag- 
hunting on Saturdays and for fox-hunting on Thursdays, is hardly up to the 
high standard set by the Master of the Keswick in horseflesh, and it is to 
be hoped that, perhaps in the near future, as much attention will be paid to 
this very important " arm of the service " as is given to the means of convey- 
ance across country. 



The Lima Hunt 



MASTER Dr. Charles A. Dohan 

SECRETARY Joseph M. Dohan, Esq., Philadelphia, Pa. 

HON. HUNTSMAN John Yamell, Esq. 

HON. WHIPPERS-IN \ '^t, Leander W^Riddle Esq. 

( znd, Joseph M. Uohan, hsq. 

HOUNDS 18 1-2 couples, American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Lima. Delaware County, Pa. 

DAYS OF MEETING Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 

with an occasional bye 

LENGTH OF SEASON November 1st to April 1st 



OF all the people of the United States, perhaps the Pennsylvanians 
and Virginians are the greatest lovers of fox-hunting, and, as will 
be seen in the chapter on the Rose Tree Hunt, the inhabitants 
of Delaware and Chester counties, almost to a man, kept a few foxhounds. 
The trencher-fed packs that resulted eventually crystallized into the various 
Hunts which now exist, and the Lima is one of these. In 1 885, the farmers 
and landowners in what is now the Lima country made an association of 
their hounds under the name of the Lima Fox Hunting Club, and, like 
many other organizations of its kind located in the vicinity of Philadelphia, 
it traces its origin to the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club. 

Unfortunately, no records are available to tell us of the founders and of the 
early Masters, but in 1 892, the present Master, Dr. Charlas A. Dohan, was 
elected and has continued in office ever since. Under his rule, the pack has 
been carefully looked after and steadily improved, until at present there are 
eighteen and a half couples of American hounds in the kennels, which have 
the reputation of being one of the best working packs in the country. 
There are seventy-five members of the Lima Hunt, whose pack, by-the- 

62 



I 



THE LIMA 

bye, is entirely supported by subscription, and it is no uncommon occurrence 
to have half-a-dozen ladies in the Field. 

Dr. Dohan's country is cramped and hilly, though not rough, except in 
small localities, and the average enclosure contains about eight or ten acres 
only, which naturally furnishes plenty of jumping. The fences are mainly 
timber, with a few stone walls and a good many brooks which require some 
doing. As yet, wire-fencing has not become a serious menace, and the hunting 
farmers are so numerous that there seems to be a fair chance of keeping it 
out in any quantity. Clean-bred and cold-bred horses are used indiscrim- 
inately, according to the taste of the rider, but the runs are long and severe, 
owing to the pace of hounds, and it is the opinion of the Master that a 
blood-horse is best suited to the country. 

The attitude of the landowners, as in most parts of Pennsylvania, is entirely 
favorable ; many of them turning out regularly and some of them contrib- 
uting hounds, giving the Lima still somewhat the character of a trencher-fed 
pack. 



63 



The London Hunt 

DISTINCTIVE COLLAR - Gray blue 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coal, gray blue collar and facings 

MASTER The Honorable Adam Beck 

SECRETARY H. C. Becher, Esq., London, Ontario 

HUNTSMAN The Master 

KENNEL HUNTSMAN Robert Imrie 

WH.PPERS.N - W-'Jt^ZI 

HOUNDS - 1 8 couples, English 

KENNELS Masonville, Ontario 

POST-OFFICE London, Ontario 

DAYS OF MEETING Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON September 1st to December 1st 

THE year 1 885 saw the foundation of the London Hunt, and as 
is the case with all the Hunts in Canada, English hounds were 
procured from the mother country. The Hunt began to enjoy 
its first years of sport under the Mastership of George C. Gibbons, Esq., 
who continued in office for fifteen years, finally resigning, in 1900, in favor 
of a younger man, the present M. F. H. Mr. Adam Beck has today some 
of the best hunters in America, and in 1 907 the London Hunt Team won at 
the International Horse Show at Olympia, London, England, to say nothing 
of having won twice previously at the National Horse Show in New York 
and at every Canadian Horse Show at which they were exhibited. 

In 1 902, Mr. Beck imported ten couples of hounds from England, most 
of them coming from Mr. Salkeld's. At the same time, Will Edwards, 
now first Whipper-in to the Middlesex, came over to take charge of the 
hounds, and during the two seasons that he remained at London the pack 
was brought to the high standard of efficiency at which it has since been kept. 

64 



I 



1 



I 



THE LONDON 

Until the advent of Edwards, drag-hunting had been the only form of 
sport indulged in, but during his time there, the hounds went out after foxes 
on off days, though this was later given up, as the members found that they 
could not devote sufficient time to it to make it worth while. Mr. Beck 
himself is a finished horseman, and both he and Mrs. Beck, who is also a 
keen lover of the sport, are almost always to be seen behind the hounds 
when they hunt the drag on three days a week during their short season, 
which lasts only from September 1 st to December 1 st. 

The country is ideal for drag-hunting, the footing being excellent and the 
fences clean and free from wire, although big. Mr. Beck has been exten- 
sively engaged in politics, having been at one time Mayor of the city of Lon- 
don, Ontario, and has found only too little time to devote to his favorite 
recreation. Were it not for this fact, fox-hunting would undoubtedly have 
been successfully established, as foxes are plentiful in the country, and the 
coverts are moderate in size. In addition to this, the townships are so laid 
out that it is possible to follow hounds even in the midst of winter, when the 
snow is heavy, by riding along the roads which are laid out by the Domin- 
ion Government in exact mile squares, thus enablmg the huntsman and Field 
to keep with hounds whichever way they turn. 

The Master has recently imported one or two stallion hounds from Eng- 
land, and the kennel huntsman, Robert Imrie, has been a successful hound 
breeder. At present he has eighteen couples in the kennels. 

The Field is a small but enthusiastic one and several ladies, in addition to 
the Master's wife, are usually out, notably the Misses Gibbons, daughters of 
the first Master. 

Two lines are generally laid for the draghounds, each from two to five 
miles in length, over beautiful, open, rollmg country, where the fences average 
not under four feet, six inches. Most of the Field ride half-breds, although 
the Hunt Staff is always superbly mounted from Mr. Beck's string of clean- 
bred ones. 

The hunting territory is acknowledged to be as strongly enclosed as any 
in America, — the Meadow Brook "north country" not excepted, — and 
while a fast, sustained gallop over it on a well-bred and well-schooled hunter, 

65 



THE LONDON 

in high condition, ciffords as rare enjoyment as a riding man could desire, yet 
it is equally certain that fox-hunting might be brought to a very high state of 
perfection in this favored locality. 

The possibilities at London are almost unlimited, being far greater than 
those of many a provincial Hunt in England, and it is to be hoped that the 
next ten years will see the Master hunting foxes with as fine a lot of hounds 
as he now has horses in his stables. 



66 



f 





\V. F.DWARDS, HUNTSMAN 1903-11)04 



The Loudoun County Hunt 

DISTINCTIVE COLLAR _ Scarlet with gieen piping 

MASTER - ~ Westmoreland Davis, Esq. 

SECRETARY W. A. Metzger, Esq.. Leesburg, Va. 

HUNTSMAN Robert Dodd 

WHIPPER-IN G. Glasscock 

HOUNDS 12 couples, American 

KENNELS - - " Morven Park," Leesburg, Va. 

POST-OFFICE Leesburg, Va. 

DAYS OF MEETING Tuesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON October 1st to February 15th 



LEESBURG. VIRGINIA, the county-seat of Loudoun County, 
is so placed by the conditions of nature that it should have every 
chance to become one of the great hunting centres of America. 
Situated in the heart of a beautiful hunting country, convenient to reach by 
rail from Washington, from which it lies about thirty-five miles northwest on 
the banks of the Potomac River, it offers many attractions to the hunting 
man. Its chief drawback lies in the vast quantity of wire fencing which is 
gradually, but quite surely, taking the place of the timber. 

Attempts to overcome this evil by putting in panels of post-and-rails are 
being made, but until some more systematic work is done along these lines, 
the remedy will amount to little. Still another drawback to the country is 
the scarcity of foxes in certain portions of it. although they are very plentiful 
along the creeks. 

Various men, some of them members of the Loudoun County Hunt, have 
kept their own hounds from time immemorial, and among these Mr. William 
Heflin stands pre-eminent. Mr. Heflin has hunted his own hounds in his 
own way, when and where he chose, for twenty-five years, and continues to 

67 



THE LOUDOUN COUNTY 

do so still. Sometimes he joins with the Loudoun County — which is in real- 
ity little more than a trencher-fed pack — and sometimes he takes them out by 
himself or with a few friends and, sitting on his horse on top of a hill from 
which he can command a view of the surrounding country, enjoys his sport 
after the old-fashioned southern style. The Loudoun County country is 
really Mr. Heflin's, and he hunted it long before the Club was formed ; but 
in Virginia, the old settlers respect each other's claims to hunting country very 
little, or to put it in another form, everyone is welcome in any man's country. 
This example might well be followed by some of the northern Hunts, 
which amuse themselves by quarrelling over the division of countries over 
which they have absolutely no rights. The Loudoun, however, cannot be 
called one of these. It is a Virginia Hunt, organized by Virginians, and 
whenever northern hounds have hunted over its territory they have done so 
at its invitation. 

In 1 894, several residents of the country, among whom were Mr. Arthur 
Mason Chichester, Jr., the Club's first President, Mr. W. A. Metzger, who 
has been its Secretary ever since its inception, Messrs. E. V. White, Henry 
Fairfax of " Oak Hill," William C. Eustis of " Oatlands House," David B. 
Tennant, William Heflin, Henry Harrison of " Utopia," and a number of 
others, organized under the name of the Loudoun County Hunt Club. Mr. 
Tennant was elected M. F. H., and for a year hunted a pack of nondescript 
American hounds. 

In 1 905, Mr. Tennant resigned the Mastership, greatly to the regret of 
everyone, and Mr. David B. Stevenson was elected in his place. Mr. 
Stevenson's term of office was very short, as he found himself forced to move 
to the north for business reasons ; but during his Mastership a drag pack 
was also maintained and used up to November 1 st, before the crops were in. 
During the summer of 1 906, Mr. William C. Eustis, who was acting M. F. H., 
bought the entire pack of the Piedmont hounds from Mr. Dulany and 
presented them to the Club, and a few months later Mr. Westmoreland 
Davis, who had recently purchased the large and beautiful estate of " Morven 
Park," near the town, was elected M. F. H. He thereupon set to work to 
make Leesburg the great hunting centre he had always hoped it might be- 

68 




WESTMORELAND DAVIS, ESQ., M.F.H. 
Krom a Paintini; \n R. Pi-rtv Wilds 



THE LOUDOUN COUNTY 

come. Finding that the hounds which belonged to the Hunt when he took 
office were very unmanageable, — killing twenty-nine sheep on one of the 
first days in the field, — he destroyed them all, and bought a small draft from 
Mr. Bywaters of Culpepper, Virginia. Mr. Bywaters breeds the American 
foxhound, " in its pure state," and claims to have as good as there are in 
Amenca. 

Mr. Heflin also very kindly loaned the Club five or six couples of his 
hounds, and these were hunted two days a week throughout the season of 
1 906 by Robert Dodd, wnith George Glasscock whipping-in to him. During 
the summer, the Board of Governors had invited Mr. A. Henry Higginson 
of Massachusetts to bring the Middlesex Foxhounds to Virginia for the sea- 
son, and this pack was hunted on alternate days with the home pack from 
November I st to January I 5th, the Loudoun taking the field on Tuesday and 
Saturday and the Middlesex on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The 
season was a good one and the excellent sport which both packs showed 
attracted many visitors from Washington and the north. 

The season of 1 907 was exceptionally open, and the sport was better 
than ever, the Middlesex taking four days a week and the Loudoun retain- 
ing the Tuesday and Saturday meets. Mr. Davis, however, found himself 
very much occupied with business matters and could not give as much atten- 
tion to the pack as formerly, which led him to tender his resignation, to take 
effect at the end of the season. 

The authors know the Loudoun country very well, having hunted vyrith 
the Middlesex Foxhounds there throughout the seasons of 1 906 and 1 907, 
and feel competent to give a more accurate description of it than of almost 
any in America except their own. As they consider that, judging from last 
season's Fields, Loudoun County will eventually become the Mecca of all 
hunting men in America, they hope that their readers wall excuse them for 
going somewhat into details. 

To the north of the town, lies what is known as the "Lucketts" country, 
a strip of territory some twelve miles in length and five or six in width, lying 
between the Potomac River and the Hog Back range of mountains. The 
country here is very open and flat ; its best coverts being along the banks of 

69 



THE LOUDOUN COUNTY 

the river at Ball's Bluff and at Red Bank. Both these coverts are pretty 
sure " finds," and foxes found in them are apt to run toward the Hog Back 
Mountains and, if hard pressed, into the valley beyond or up the side of the 
ridge, eventually trying to return to their starting point. The enclosures are 
large and the going sound, most of it being used for pasture and conse- 
quently very strongly fenced. There is much wire, and where there is not, 
few of the fences are under four feet eight inches in height, while some of 
them are five feet or over. 

The eastern portion of the country, which lies beyond Goose Creek, is 
rough, heavily wooded, full of ware and not very good hunting, but if one 
keeps on the Leesburg side of the creek and swangs south along its banks, 
one comes to a series of coverts which are probably better supplied with 
foxes than any others. 

The area south of the town, bounded by Goose Creek, which makes 
a westerly turn ten miles above, is more wooded than that lying to the north 
and east. Strong, though rideable woodlands afford ample cover for foxes ; 
and Fendall's Wood, Fleming's, Maple Swamp and Carter's Wood are 
almost always productive of a good fox and a good run, the country here 
being also level and very strongly fenced. 

If one crosses Goose Creek at the Oatlands bridge, about ten miles south 
of the town, and goes down the Aldie pike, one is in the heart of the very 
cream of the country. To the east lies Areola, a bit rough but fairly good 
galloping, to the south Hickory Grove and Aldie, wath the Bull Run Moun- 
tain coverts ; while turning to the west one comes to the Skinner coverts, 
the Marble Quarry, and Steptoe Hill, which offer the best sport of all. 
Goose Creek divides the Marble Quarry and Steptoe Hill, while Beaver 
Dam Creek, one of its tributaries, runs just north of it. Steptoe Hill is an 
absolutely sure "find, " and though the territory for several miles around is 
hilly, foxes either make for the open country around " Oak Hill," Mr. Henry 
Fairfax's estate, or turn west toward Mountsville, giving the finest kind of 
galloping over good, sound upland pastures, just rolling enough to make it in- 
teresting. 

Due north of Leesburg, between the Blue Ridge and the Hog Back 

70 



THE LOUDOUN COUNTY 

ranges, lies a valley twenty miles long and ten miles wide. The little towns 
of Waterford, Wheatland, Hamilton and Hillsboro afford popular meets from 
which to hunt this territory. Catoctin Creek, at one place, makes a very 
circuitous bend known as "The Horse-shoe," which affords good cover 
along its banks, in which many foxes breed. Let hounds force a fox out of it 
into the open, and he must run fast and far over the most beautiful riding 
country before he can find sanctuary. Little or no hunting was done in this 
section of the country until 1 908, and the landowners are keen to have hounds 
there as often as they will come, though for that matter most of the landowners 
in Virginia are reasonable enough if they are treated with consideration. 

Such is the " Leicestershire of America," a distinction which is shared by 
the Piedmont and Orange County countries which adjoin it 



The Meadow Brook Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Light blue 

EVENING DRESS -- - Scarlet coat, light blue facings 

MASTER - - Samuel Willets, Esq. 

SECRETARY August Belmont, Jr., Esq., New York, N. Y. 

HUNTSMAN — Michael Hanlon 

1st, William Lambert 



WHIPPERS-IN - - ) o . , n 

( Znd, Jeunes L-osgrove 

KENNELMAN - - - - Patrick Gibson 

HOUNDS - - - - - 30 couples, English 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Westbury, Long Island, N. Y. 

DAYS OF MEETING - Four days a week 

LENGTH OF SEASON - \ tT^^f",^: }^'^ 1° ^.^T7 '" 

( March 1 5 th to April 15 th 



FOX-HUNTING on Long Island, of which the Meadow Brook 
Hunt is to-day the chief exponent, dates from 1 770, when one 
John Evers maintained and hunted a pack at Hempstead. Horses, 
hounds and Hunt servants came from England, and among the subscribers 
to the pack was George Washington, Esq. 

From a notice posted November 19th, 1 78 1, by the Brooklyn Hunt, that 
"hounds would throw off at Denyse's Ferry, on the estate of Denyse 
Denyse, Esq., at The Narrows (now Fort Hamilton), at 9 o'clock, Thursday 
morning and that a guinea would be given for a good, strong bag-fox " and 
signed — "Charles Loosely," it appears that there was hunting in that vicinity 
and that such an organization as the Brooklyn Hunt existed. Denyse 
Denyse, Esq., was the great-grandfather of H. L. Herbert, Esq., who is now 
one of the prominent members of the Meadow Brook Hunt and has always 
given to it his most earnest support. The Revolutionary War brought an 

72 



1 



i 



THE MEADOW BROOK 

end to these pioneer efforts, and, as was the case with the hunting about 
Philadelphia, there was a period of inactivity among fox-hunters. 

As far as can be discovered, there was little or no hunting about New 
York City until 1 874, when Colonel Frederick S. Skinner and Mr. Joseph 
Donohue maintained a pack of hounds on the edge of the Jersey meadows, 
at Hackensack. Messrs. Skinner and Donohue were in the habit of draw- 
ing their coverts on foot and when hounds found, of retreating to a horse and 
buggy which stood in the fields nearby and following as best they could along 
the roads. When hounds killed, however, they were generally there or there- 
abouts, and although their methods could hardly be endorsed by any previ- 
ous customs of the hunting-field, they were hard to beat at their game. 

Eventually the "goings-on" at Hackensack came to the ears of half-a- 
dozen young men of New York, one or two of whom had hunted in Eng- 
land and all of whom were keen for sport of any kind. One by one they 
stole across to Hackensack and the New Jersey pack began to have a fol- 
lowing of straight riders. The joint Masters, Messrs. Skinner and Donohue, 
still kept to their faithful buggy, but welcomed the riders who flew timber 
and stone and rode out of their way to get the jumping. 

But the fences were simple, the country was small and the pace was slow, 
and although a large Field came from New York on Thanksgiving Day of 
1 876 to join in the fun, it was soon found that both hounds and country 
were unsuitable to attain the best results and it was decided to make a move. 
To Messrs. Skinner and Donohue, however, should be given the credit of 
whetting the appetites of the slow-moving New Yorkers and inciting them 
to an appreciation of the possibilities of fox-hunting on Long Island. 

Early in 1877, four gentlemen, A. Belmont Purdy, William E. Peet, F. 
Gray Griswold and Robert Center, met at the latter's rooms in New York 
and subscribed $250 each, to go toward the purchasing of a pack. Mr. 
Griswold, who was going abroad, was entrusted with their selection and pur- 
chase, and on his arrival in Ireland he obtained, through Mr. Thomas Tur- 
bitt of Scribblestown, a pack of harriers. 

During Mr. Griswold's absence, the other three gentlemen cast about for 
a suitable country, and eventually selected that now hunted over by the 

73 



THE MEADOW BROOK 

Meadow Brook. The lease of a farmhouse, situated on the property which 
the Meadow Brook Hunt now occupies, was secured, and here, on Octo- 
ber 4th, 1877, was the first meet of the Queen's County hounds. A cir- 
cular, setting forth the aims and objects of the Hunt, had been sent out, and 
the subscriptions which came in response to this were very gratifying; so 
that when Mr. Frank Griswold, who had been elected Master, rode to the 
meet with a most useful lookmg pack of about seventeen couples, he was 
greeted by a large Field, — for those days, — about forty or fifty riders, 
mounted on every imaginable kind of horse, and by spectators in traps of 
every sort. 

Everybody was in earnest, and among the names of those who were 
there that day vnW be found many familiar ones in the hunting field of to- 
day, among them being Messrs. William Jay, Elliot Zborowski, Hermann 
Oelrichs, Elliot Roosevelt, William E. Peet, John Sanford, William C. 
Sanford, Dr. James Green, Charles G. Franklin, Floyd Brice, Frank Pay son, 
Charles G. Peters, Alfred Gardner, H. L. Herbert, and of the ladies, Miss 
Hildegarde Oelrichs, later Mrs. Henderson ; Mrs Forbes-Morgan, Miss Lucy 
Oelrichs, later Mrs. William Jay; Miss Lucy Work, now Mrs. Cooper 
Hev^att, and Mrs. Frank Payson. In the whole Field, there were perhaps 
half-a-dozen qualified hunters, but no falls were recorded, and most of the 
Field appear to have finished the run. 

The farmers looked upon what seemed to them an entire novelty with 
good nature, and even cheerfully replaced the broken rails. Still the Hunt 
did not escape all opposition, for the Quakers of the neighborhood de- 
nounced it as a godless employment, and Mr. Henry Bergh, of the Society 
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, added his protest, declaring it to 
be " an evil sport and unnaturally cruel." At the present time, it seems to 
us, the hunting men of to-day, that the criticisms which the members of the 
fox-hunting fraternity had to meet were absurd and merely expressions of 
prejudice; but we must remember that many prejudices have died in the 
last thirty years and that opimons which once existed among the Quakers 
of Long Island have now ceased. Mr. Benjamin D. Hicks, a large land- 
ov^ier in the heart of the Meadow Brook country, a man of strong convic- 

74 




-AM ill Wll 



1 






THE MEADOW BROOK 

tions but of consideration for the opinions of others, the vice-president of 
Mr. Bergh's society, was the last farmer to oppose hunting on principle, and 
all opposition on that ground has long since ceased. 

As is usually the case in a country where hunting is new, the first year 
was very successful. Prosperity smiled on the farmer, his hay and straw 
found a ready market with the hunting men, who rented houses and stables 
which had long lain idle, the Fields were large, and at the end of the sea- 
son, the Hunt gave a ball to the farmers and their families. The neighbor- 
hood lent encouraging aid and hunting seemed to have got a permanent 
hold on Long Island. 

The second season showed the reaction from the energy and enthusiasm 
of the preceding year, which is often the case. The Fields fell off, the amity 
of the farmers was not so pronounced, and but for the persistency of the 
originators of the Hunt it perhaps would have died then. But they con- 
tinued their sport, and presently things began to look up again. 

The hounds were moved to Central Morrisania in Westchester County, 
N. Y., — now a solidly built suburb of the metropolis, — where Mr. Griswold 
agreed to hunt them for a period not exceeding two years. The attempt re- 
sulted in a failure; the going proved bad, the fences unsuitable, the fields 
cramped and the ground too soft in the spring to be ridden over with any 
satisfaction. It was in no sense a country suitable for draghounds, or, in fact, 
for any hounds ; and although the kennels were moved farther out — to New 
Rochelle — there was no additional benefit. 

On Long Island, as soon as the Queen's County hounds had gone, their 
loss was appreciated. The hunting spirit was still there, although dormant, 
and by the spring of 1 880 the demand for another pack was too strong to 
remain unanswered, and Mr. Belmont Purdy came forward with a proposi- 
tion to support a pack of his own. He commissioned Mr. J. Burke-Roche 
to send him hounds from Ireland, and established what is, today, the 
Meadow Brook Hunt. In this he was assisted by Mr. Thomas Hitch- 
cock, Jr., who had just returned from Oxford, and these two gentlemen, 
actmg together, secured the support of the hunting men on Long Island. 
The pack was hunted the first season at Mr. Purdy's own expense, with 

75 



THE MEADOW BROOK 

Charley CuUinan as huntsman and Jim Bergen as whipper-in ; and the sport 
furnished proving most satisfactory. Long Island hunting was at last estab- 
lished on a permanent basis. 

In 1881, the Club was incorporated, among its chief supporters being 
Messrs. William Jay, August Belmont, Winthrop Rutherford and the late 
William R. Travers, who was elected to the Presidency of the newly 
formed organization. About this time, Mr. Griswold, finding that the West- 
chester country was unsatisfactory, returned to Long Island, bringing with 
him the Queen's County hounds, of which he was now sole owner. The 
Long Island country was large enough for both packs, and an amicable ar- 
rangement between Mr. Griswold and the Meadow Brook Hunt as to the 
division of the country was made. 

The Rockaway Hunt, which enjoyed many years of prosperity but was 
eventually driven out by lack of sufficient territory, was started about this 
time by Mr. John Cheever. It became a regular organization and numbered 
among its Masters, Messrs. R; L. la Montagne, J. G Austin, Farley Clark, 
John E. Cowdin, Eben Stevens, Foxhall P. Keene (later M. F. H. of 
Meadow Brook), and at one time was hunted by Mr. Griswold in connec- 
tion wath his own country. Of late years, the Rockaway Hunt has been 
rejuvenated under the name of the Rockaway Hunting Club, and although 
its territory does not permit of its keeping up a pack of foxhounds, a race- 
meeting is held annually at Cedarhurst, Long Island, and its members always 
hope that at some future date the pack can be re-established. 

The Meadow Brook Hunt continued to gain in popularity and, after a 
while, Mr. Belmont Purdy retired from the Mastership and was succeeded 
by Mr. F. R. Appleton. After Mr. Appleton came Mr. E. D. Morgan, 
Mr. R. W. Stuart and Mr. Thomas Hitchcock, Jr., in 1891 and 1892. 

In 1 893, Mr. Griswold was re-elected Master of the Meadow Brook and 
he, after supporting the Queen's County hounds for his own amusement for 
a number of years, amalgamated them with the Meadow Brook pack and 
continued to hunt the two countries until 1 895, when he resigned, turning 
the country over to the Meadow Brook at that time. 

Mr. Griswold was Master of Draghounds from 1877 to 1895, some of 

76 



I 




ROBERT CUTKSWORTH, HUNTSMAN' 190^-1904 




MICHAEL HANLON, HUNTSMAN 



THE MEADOW BROOK 

the rime at Meadow Brook and the rest with his own hounds. During that 
period, he hunted the hounds himself over as stiff a country as exists; 
country which would make the average Englishman "sit up," as will be seen 
by the following descriphon taken verbarim from a letter by Capt. Pennell- 
Elmhirst ("Brooksby") — himself a hard man to hounds all his life — writ- 
ten from Meadow Brook and to be found in his book " The Best of Fun." 

"Our route to the meet ran along the Hempstead Plains, on whose broad 
bosom (as enticing for a gallop almost as Newmarket Heath) the Meadow 
Brook Hunt have planted their house, kennels and polo ground. On our 
right lay farm land of the usual Long Island type, fields of somewhat rugged 
grass, now brown and scorched by the outgoing heat-season, and stubble 
and dust-garden remaining from lately gathered harvest. The whole is upon 
a light loamy soil that never bakes hard and so never rebels obstinately 
against a horse's footfall. Thus concussion is minimized and horses can go 
on jumping freely year after year. On the other hand, it is never deep or 
spongy with wet, the descending rain finding its way rapidly to the water- 
level, some six feet only below the surface. 

"'Surely you don't ride at a flight of rails like that?' I enquired, pointing 
to a first barricade that met my troubled gaze, to wit, — a mortised erection 
of open bars, each of them as thick as a man's thigh and the lot carried con- 
siderably higher than an ordinary Leicestershire gate. ' Why yes, that's 
nothing much. The farmers aim at setting their fences at four feet eight to 
keep their stock in.* I asked no more, but held my peace, while the horrid 
parallel intruded itself upon my mind of the condemned man in the prison-car 
catching a first view of the gallows awaiting him. But I gazed and gazed as 
each successive bone-trap hove in view and you may depend upon it, the 
longer I looked, the less I liked them, and I wondered who would ride the 
horses at home in Old England. " 

This IS the country over which Mr. Gnswold rode for nineteen years ; and 
let us again quote from " Brooksby's " letter to show how he did it. 

" With the Mastership, be it added, comes the privilege at all times and 
under all circumstances of leading the Field in pursuit of hounds. Were 
this rule enforced in Old England, imagine the feelings of an M. F. H. 

77 



THE MEADOW BROOK 

called upon to live in front of the galloping hundreds of the Quorn or Pytch- 
ley, or, for that matter, of many another pack. As we rode to the meet, I 
wondered as I glanced forward, what proportion, or if even a substratum, of 
truth lay in the comforting words of the Master. ' Very big and gaunt these 
fences look,' I remarked, adding, with a jauntiness I was far from feeling, 
'but they say the horses here jump well enough.' ' Oh, you'll find some rails 
down or a gap in almost every one,' he answered, and 1 believed him as the 
artless miner believed the heathen Chinee. But see, what is he domg now? 
Where are the rails down, and where is the gap? Six foot of timber, surely, 
and he is within three strides, both ears cocked and both spurs in. Nay, I 
will lower six inches, but never another inch, an I have to prove it at pistol 
point. Well, it was death or degradation now and no time to balance the 
account, so I gave the old horse a strong pull, gripped him tight between my 
nervous knees, chose my panel some three lengths from my instigator and sat 
still for the result. Rugged and awful loomed the ponderous top rail on a 
level wath my horse's ears, one of which — ill omen — was twinkling toward 
the exemplar on our right. A moment more and we seemed right under 
the frowning barricade, then a hoist, a bang, a prolonged quiver, but no fall, 
though a yard of turf was ploughed up, and the demonstrator turned quietly 
in his saddle for a smile and a word of encouragement." 

Mr. Griswold was succeeded in 1896 by Mr. Ralph N. Ellis, under 
whose management the Hunt flourished for six years. Mr. Ellis is a strong 
believer in American hounds, and toward the latter part of his Mastership he 
brought his own pack of American hounds into the country, kenneling them a 
few miles away from the Club and taking them out two days a week after foxes. 

While the experiment was not wholly successful, it gave the followers of 
the Meadow Brook drag a zest for the "real thing," and fox-hunting was 
established as one of the regular pursuits, a certain element preferring it to 
the more exciting occupation of drag-hunting. Mr. Ellis resigned as Master 
at the end of the season of 1 902, and Mr. Foxhall P. Keene was elected 
in his place. Much of the early history of the Meadow Brook which is here 
written is taken from an article on hunting written by Mr. Ellis in 1 90 1 . 

With the coming of Mr. Keene as M. F. H., a new system began at 

76 




HUNT STAFF AND HOUNDS 




THE HOUN'DS 



THE MEADOW BROOK 

Meadow Brook, for Mr. Ellis had given the Field a taste of fox-hunting and 
they wanted more. Mr. Keene is a staunch believer in the English system 
of hunting and in the English foxhound, and he decided to give it to them 
along those lines. Accordingly he purchased, in 1 902, Mr. Salkeld's entire 
pack, which was offered for sale in England. Mr. Salkeld's foxhounds had 
been hunted about the rough, hilly country of Cumberland, where the coverts 
are large and the scenting conditions poor, and Mr. Keene thought that they 
would be admirably suited to conditions on Long Island. In order that no 
stone should be left unturned to make this experiment successful, he engaged 
Robert Cotesworth to come to America and act as huntsman to the Meadow 
Brook. 

Cotesworth had had a long experience with the best packs in England, 
having served as a whipper-in at Atherstone, Brocklesby and Belvoir, and 
as huntsman to Earl Bathurst's Vale of White Horse foxhounds. With 
Cotesworth came his son Tom, who acted in the capacity of first whipper- 
in, while Hannon, who had been a long time at Meadow Brook, served as 
second whipper-in. Thirty-two couples comprised the Salkeld pack and 
with these Mr. Keene hunted foxes three days a week, the draghounds go- 
ing out on the other three days as before. The experiment was not wholly 
successful, the scenting conditions on the sandy Long Island soil being far 
from good ; and, although the Fields were large, Mr. Keene was discour- 
aged and in 1 904 gave up the Mastership and sold the entire hunting es- 
tablishment at auction. The hounds, which had been very successful "on the 
flags," having won at the Westminster Kennel Club Show at the Garden in 
1 905, were bought in by the Club, and the Mastership passed to Mr. P. 
F. Collier, who had for a long time maintained a pack of his own in Mon- 
mouth County, New Jersey. The Cotesworths both left and went to the 
Middlesex, and Mr. Collier found himself without a huntsman for his pack. 
He made arrangements with Mr. John Foster of England to hunt the Eng- 
lish hounds for him three days a week, and they were so hunted during the 
season of 1905—6. Mr. Collier also made arrangements with Mr. H. I. 
Varner of Arkansas to bring his pack of American hounds to the Meadow 
Brook country and hunt them on alternate days with the English hounds. 

79 



THE MEADOW BROOK 

The drag pack, which was the property of the Club, continued to go out 
three days a week in the afternoon, making a total of nine "days" (!) a 
week during the season of 1905—6. 

This proved a failure, Mr. Foster failing to show even as good sport with 
the English foxhounds as Cotesworth had, and at the end of the season his 
connection with the Hunt was severed. Neither did Mr. Varner show any 
great sport, and he returned to Arkansas at the end of the season. The 
drag continued to hold its own in the eyes of the hard-riding element who 
only considered hounds as an excuse for a steeplechase. 

The season of 1906—7 was rather more successful. James Blaxland 
hunted Mr. Collier's American foxhounds, while Edgar Caffyn acted as 
huntsman to the draghounds, now recruited by the remains of Mr. Keene's 
once famous pack, many of which had been sold ; but Mr. Collier found that 
he could not spare the time to devote to two packs, and as he washed to 
continue his private pack in New Jersey, he resigned his Mastership at the 
close of the season. In the spring of 1 907, the draghounds were hunted by 
a committee, but in the summer Mr. Samuel Willets was elected to the 
Mastership, and as he had no proper pack of foxhounds, he invited Mr. 
Paul Rainey to hunt the country three days a week with his private pack of 
American foxhounds, the draghounds continuing to go out as usual under 
Mr. Willets' Mastership. 

This is the state of affairs at Meadow Brook at present writing, Mr. 
Willets now having about thirty couples of English hounds in the kennels. 
Just what the coming years may bring forth is an open question ; but certain 
it is that the members of the Hunt and the residents of Long Island will al- 
ways wish sport of some sort — be it drag-hunting or fox-hunting — across 
their country. 




CLAUDE HATCHER, HUNTSMAN 



The Middleburg Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Black velvet 

MASTER Samuel P. Fred, Esq. 

HUNTSMAN - Claude Hatcher 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Middleburg, Va. 

DAYS OF MEETING Wednesday and Friday 

LENGTH OF SEASON October 1st to March 15th 



THE Middleburg Hunt dates, as an organization, from 1 906, and 
was founded by Messrs. Samuel P. Fred, H. J. and A. S. 
Duffy, Johnson Russell, John R. Townsend, Dr. Luck and 
several others. 

In 1905, hunting about Middleburg was given a great impetus by the 
fox-hunting match between the Middlesex and Grafton Hounds, which 
took place partly in that country. The Master of the Middlesex made his 
headquarters at Middleburg, and many of the meets were held in what is 
now the Middleburg country. Such good sport was the result that, in 1 906, 
the landowners about Middleburg invited Mr. Higginson, Master of the 
Middlesex, to come back and hunt the country ; but arrangements having 
already been made by him to hunt the Loudoun Hunt country, adjoining, 
he was compelled to decline. 

In the spring of 1 906 there was a good deal of trouble between Mr. 
Harry W. Smith, M. F. H. of the Grafton, and Mr. John R. Townsend 
M. F. H. of the Orange County, with kennels at The Plains, Va., as to who 
should hunt at Middleburg the following season, Mr. Smith's claims being 
backed by the Piedmont Hunt, which had always hunted over the district. 
Mr. Townsend, however, eventually got the better of the dispute and he 
installed part of the Orange County pack at Middleburg with Mr. Percy 
Evans as Deputy-Master. During the season of 1 906, The Plains country 

81 



THE MIDDLEBURG 

and the Middleburg country were hunted in this manner, and the Orange 
County showed very satisfactory sport at both places. 

In 1 907, Mr. Evans resigning his office as Deputy-Master, Mr. Townsend 
took up the Mastership himself, leaving Claude Hatcher, the huntsman, in 
charge of the Middleburg pack, which also hunted the Piedmont country. 
This courtesy was extended by Mr. R. Hunter Dulany, to whom the hered- 
itary title to the Piedmont Mastership had descended on the death of his 
father, Col. Richard H. Dulany. 

In 1 908, Mr. Samuel P. Fred was elected Master of the Middleburg 
Hunt, and although the club is, in reality, an offshoot of the Orange County 
Hunt and owns no hounds of its own, it still retains recognition from the 
National Steeplechase and Hunt Association. Just what hounds will hunt 
their country another season is in doubt, although it is probable that the 
Orange County will resume its sway. 

The country, which is surrounded by the territory of the Loudoun County, 
Orange County and Piedmont Hunts, is as good as could be asked for. Its 
greatest drawback is Goose Creek, a stream which runs through much of its 
best territory, and which, although it is fordable in many places, sometimes 
spoils a good run for the Field. But there is a lot of open country lying be- 
tween Aldie and Middleburg, pretty free from ware, and well supplied with 
foxes, which gives excellent sport. The fences are rather easier than in the 
Loudoun country, though on the Piedmont side there are many stone walls 
of great size, and it requires a good, big-jumping horse to carry a man well 
over the country. The authors well remember a run during the hound 
match in 1905 when a fox was found near Goose Creek, along whose banks 
there are many earths, which gave the Field the best kind of going at top- 
pace for over an hour with hardly a strand of wire in the line. 

Mr. Townsend has hunted the country with both English and American 
hounds and has come to prefer the latter, though perhaps he has hardly given 
the former a fair trial. 

Whoever hunts the Middleburg country may be assured of warm support 
from the landowners themselves, most of whom are hunting men and breed 
as fine a type of horse for the country as can be found anywhere. 

82 




i 



I 
I 



The Middlesex Foxhounds 

(MR. HIGGINSON'S) 

DISTINCTIVE COLLAR White (Green facings and piping worn by 

Master and servants only.) 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, white collar, green facings 

MASTER A. Henry Higginson, Esq. 

SECRETARY Grafton St. L. Abbott, Esq., Concord, Mass. 

HUNTSMAN - - The Master 

KENNEL HUNTSMAN - Edward Cotcsworth 

WHIPPERS-IN \ \'\ David Thornton 

( znd, r red Hoxiord 

HOUNDS - 50 couples, English 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE South Lincoln, Mass. 

DAYS OF MEETING Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON - August 1st to February 1st 



MANY people in Massachusetts think that fox-hunting proper 
is quite impossible in that State because of the difficulty of 
riding to hounds. If the matter is carefully looked into they 
would see, as have the followers of the Middlesex, that while it is impossible 
to be with hounds all the time, it is perfectly feasible to be on terms with 
them in nine cases out of ten, and that, given a fair chance and efficient earth- 
stopping, hounds v«ll kill often enough to keep blooded, while the lover of 
hound work will be rewarded by many a good hunting day. At Myopia 
and Norfolk, both near neighbors of the Middlesex, only the drag is hunted, 
and when one realizes that many of their members are business men v«th too 
many duties to allow them to devote an entire day to the sport, this is quite 
natural. At Middlesex it is somewhat different; the pack is in every sense 
a private one and the Hunt Club proper, which is very small, has little to do 
with its management, the Field being free to all. 

83 



THE MIDDLESEX 

The Hunt dates from 1 897, when the Ridgewood Beagles were hunted 
under the joint Mastership of Messrs. R. B. Baker and A. Henry Higginson 
in a small area which is now a portion of the present Middlesex country. 
For several years the hounds were kenneled at Mr. Baker's place near Wal- 
tham, and it was not until 1901 that recognition from the National Steeple- 
chase and Hunt Association was applied for and granted. At that time the 
present Master had been hunting the little hounds around South Lincoln for 
about a year, with the two Messrs. Baker acting as amateur whippers-in. 
The Hunt grew by degrees, and presently, as is always the case, the need for 
better and faster hounds was felt. A draft of foxhounds was accordingly 
purchased from the Myopia, but as these did not prove to be just what was 
wanted, a friend in England was pressed into service and a draft sent from 
there. These first hounds came from the Brookside Harriers, an old pack, 
which Mr. Steyning Baird had just given up, and were really miniature 
foxhounds. They served very well for a year or two on the drag, and if 
that kind of cross-country riding had remained the only form of sport, matters 
might not have taken the turn they did. But one day, late in the season, the 
harriers were taken out after foxes, stumbled on to a good line and furnished 
such a good run that it was promptly decided that the acquisition of a good 
pack of foxhounds was the next step. 

With this object in view the Master went to England in the spring of 1 904 
and there was lucky enough to fall into very good hands. Mr. C. W. B. 
Fernie of Leicester was kind enough to let his draft for the year go a bit 
early, and v«th eleven couples from this well-known pack, which is full of the 
peerless Belvoir blood, the Middlesex pack of today was founded. Early in 
August, twenty more couples came over from England and with these came 
Will Ryder, who had been engaged by Charles Isaac, Mr. Fernie's hunts- 
man, to act as whipper-in. Then followed a series of calamities ; the Master 
was ill and out of the saddle most of the autumn, and although Mr. J. I. 
Chamiberlain was an efficient Field Master, he was handicapped by the loss 
of Ryder, who had to go home to England. 

About this time, however, Mr. Foxhall P. Keene gave up the Master- 
ship of the Meadow Brook Hounds on Long Island, and Bob Cotesworth, 

84 



I 



I 

I 




NED COTESWORTH, KENNEL HUNTSMAN 



THE MIDDLESEX 

who had come from England to hunt the Meadow Brook in 1 905, resigned 
his position and came to the Middlesex. He was the right man at the right 
time, and his judgment and skill in kennel and field management made a 
great deal of difference to the Master, who was practically a novice at the 
game. While he was with the Middlesex the latter ceased to hunt the 
hounds himself, deeming it wiser to leave that part of the work to the little 
man from Leicestershire, who, with his experience from Belvoir, Atherstone, 
Brocklesby, etc., in old England, to aid him, did wonders in New England. 

In 1905, more hounds came from Mr. Femie's, sent by Charles Isaac, who 
takes great interest in his " American pack," as he calls it ; and with plenty 
of good blood to breed from, Cotesworth succeeded in greatly improving the 
pack, both in working qualities and general levelness. Among the excellent 
hounds bred in the kennels during his regime, "Fancy," "Nimrod," "Nota- 
ble," and "Purity," all entered in 1906, are worthy of particular mention as 
having done well, both in the field and on the flags. 

Middlesex County, lying as it does not far from Boston, is very accessible 
to sportsmen, and although, like all New England countries, it is hampered 
by vfire and the size of the coverts, two obstacles that make it difficult to 
get as good runs as might be desired, it abounds in red foxes, which give 
hounds plenty to do. 

The season of 1904, Cotesworth's first, was productive of two results. 
The first of these was an excellent season, and the second the controversy in 
the columns of The Rider and T^rioer between Mr. Harry W. Smith, 
Master of the Grafton, and the Master of the Middlesex anent the compara- 
tive excellence of English and American hounds. This led to the now famous 
English-American foxhound match in the Piedmont Valley of Virginia in 
the autumn of 1 905. It is not the intention of the authors to discuss this 
question here ; it is now a matter of history. Whatever its faults, the match 
resulted in some very good days in the hunting field, and both contestants 
came away with a better opinion of their rivals than they had previously held, 
while from a spectacular point of view it was a great event. America is not 
EJigland, and when a Field of eighty turns up to meet hounds, as was the 
case the opening day, on the picturesque lawn of Col. Dulany's country seat, 

as 



THE MIDDLESEX 

" Wellbourne," it means a good deal. Representatives of twenty-six Hunts 
were there that day, and many of them had come a long journey to be 
present. There were some very good days in the fortnight which followed ; 
and when the Middlesex hounds finally went north again to their home country 
they left many friends behind them. 

The match was productive of one result which made a great deal of dif- 
ference in the future of the pack. Up to that time the Virginians had not 
seen what a really good pack of English foxhounds could do; in fact, they 
were very much under the impression that English hounds, while they might 
be all right in their own country, could show no sport in America, a judg- 
ment based on the work of a few single hounds which had drifted into the 
country. So good, however, were some of the days in 1905, that the Vir- 
ginians began to think that, after all, there was a good deal of sport in hunt- 
ing behind a pack of well-mannered hounds which ran together and were 
amenable to some discipline, even if they were not quite so good at cold 
trailing as their American cousins. At any rate, in the spring of 1 906, Mr. 
Higginson received an invitation from the Masters of both the Piedmont and 
the Loudoun County Hunts to take three days a week of their respective 
countries for the following season. The objection to this plan was, of course, 
that it meant a shortening of the home season in Massachusetts, but arrange- 
ments were finally made by which this could be done to the satisfaction of 
all concerned. Thirty-five couples of hounds, together with horses and the 
Hunt staff, went to Leesburg, Virginia, in the Loudoun country, and ken- 
neled there at "Big Spring Farm," very kindly loaned by Westmoreland 
Davis, Esq., M. F. H. of the Loudoun County Hunt ; and during the months 
of November, December and January, the Middlesex went out three days a 
week and the Loudoun two. The Loudoun country borders on that over 
which the foxhound match had been held in the previous year, so that 
some of it was familiar to Bob Cotesworth, who hunted the hounds this 
season for the last time, with Harry Hopkins, late of the Vine, and Will 
Edwards as whippers-in. 

Loudoun County and its bordering country is the equal, if not the superior, 
of any hunting country in America. The coverts are large, but not so large 

86 



THE MIDDLESEX 

that it is hard to get foxes out of them; and once out, one has the finest 
possible country to ride over. The fences are big and stifjf, and it takes "a 
horse and a man" to negotiate them, but what fox-hunter minds the fences 
on a crisp autumn day when hounds are running? Foxes, too, are fairly 
abundant, and the Master was glad at the end of the season to accept the 
invitation of the Loudoun Hunt Committee to " come back again." 

Bob Cotesworth resigned at the end of the season, thus ending a thirty 
years service in the hunting field, leaving the pack, which he had done so 
much toward making in the new country, in excellent shape for the Master, 
who had decided to resume the hunting of them himself. He was succeeded 
in the kennel by his brother Ned, late huntsman to the Linlithgow and Stir- 
lingshire, while Will Edwards was promoted to the position of first whipper- 
in and a new man, David Thornton, engaged as second. The season of 
1 907-8 in Virginia was far better than that of 1 906-7 ; foxes being more 
plentiful, scenting conditions better, and the hounds themselves much im- 
proved, this year taking the field four days a week from October I 5th to 
February 1 st. The plan of going to Virginia for the latter part of the hunt- 
ing season has now become a regular thing with the Middlesex, as it admits 
of hunting at least three months after the frost has made sport impossible in 
the north. 

The home country about Lincoln is far from being a bad one, and is very 
fortunate in having an excellent class of landowners who enjoy the sport and 
are justly proud of the pack and its prowess all over the country. Puppy 
walkers are always to be found, and the annual Puppy Show in the spring 
and the Horse Show in the autumn are gala days for the countryside. 
Drag-hunting has now been completely abandoned, the Master beginning his 
cubbing early in August, and the sport continuing at Lincoln until the mid- 
dle of October, when the pack goes south and hunts until the frost puts a 
stop to it, usually about February 1 st. 

Just a word here as to the pack. As has been stated, most of the parent 
stock came from Mr. Fernie's, although there has been a slight infusion of 
Milton Fitzwilliam and Badminton blood, while a few hounds have come 
from the Warwickshire and Southdown. The Master's theory always has 

87 



THE MIDDLESEX 

been to get the best blood that could be procured in drah hounds, and then 
from these to breed such a pack as was needed to do the best work under 
existing conditions. While the motto " Handsome is as handsome does," is 
applied in the drafting of such hounds as are not first-class in the field, the 
Middlesex has always been prominent on the flags, and its successes at the 
Westminster Kennel Club shows in the winter and the National Hound 
shows in the spring are well known. 

It may be interesting to note that the first National Hound Show, mod- 
elled on the famous Hound Show at Peterboro, England, was held at 
South Lincoln, near the kennels of the Middlesex, in 1906. This initial 
effort met with such success that succeedmg shows were held in 1 907 and 
1 908, and the affair is now an annual fixture. Cups are offered by Masters 
of Hounds all over the United States and Canada, and at the initial show 
three noted Masters in England, His Grace the Duke of Beaufort, G. C. W. 
Fitzwilliam, Esq., and C. W. B. Fernie, Esq., lent their support by doing 
likewise. 




J. L. STACK, ESQ., M.F.H. 



The Midlothian Hunt Club 

DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Green velvet 

EVENING DRESS _ Scarlet coat, green facings 

MASTER J. L. Stack, Esq. 

SECRETARY S. C. Stewart, Esq., Chicago, 111. 

HUNTSMAN - James Walker 

WHIPPERS-IN \ l'\ ^^" McDurmat 

( 2nd, Percy Hamilton 

HOUNDS - 111-2 couples, American 

KENNELS - Midlothian, lU. 

POST-OFFICE - Blue Island, 111. 

DAYS OF MEETING -.- Monday, Wednesday and Saturday 

I FNIf^TH OF SFASDN ^ Spring season, five weeks. Summer, once a 

( week at daybreak. Autumn, three months 



DURING the summer of 1 903, a number of gentlemen belonging 
to the Midlothian Country Club, situated about twenty miles out 
of Chicago on the Rock Island Railway, decided to follow the 
example of the Onwentsia of Lake Forest, near Chicago, and to form a club 
within a club, as it were, by starting a pack of hounds. Among these gentle- 
men were the Messrs. H. L. Swift, Keith Spalding, James D. Small, Robert 
J. Thome, Thomas E. Donnelly, Wallace de Wolfe, Robert P. Lamont, J. 
L. Stack and Dyke Williams. 

Few of them knew anything about hunting, but, all being interested in 
horses, these pioneers felt that it could be made a success at Midlothian as 
it had at Onwentsia. Mr. James L. Stack was elected Master and has con- 
tinued to fill that position up to the present time. 

Of course, it is always a great advantage to a Hunt to have the same 
Master continuously. He gets in touch with the landowners and it makes a 

89 



THE MIDLOTHIAN 

great deal of difference to everyone to know that the regime is a good one. 
Whether it is due to this state of affairs or to Mr. Stack's gift of making the 
farmers happy is difficult to say, but it is probably due to a little of both. At 
any rate, in the five seasons during which the present Master has presided 
over the pack, he has succeeded in getting them to take a stand which few 
of the westerners do. They are exceptionally liberal; in fact, Mr. Stack 
informs us that most of them are not only wilhng but desirous of having the 
Hunt in their country. As has been pointed out in several of the articles in 
this book, the landowners have many things to gain by having foxhounds on 
their land, and this is especially true of those owning farms near a prosperous 
country club in the vicinity of a big city. Many a prospective landov^mer 
gets his first glimpse of his future country-seat while following hounds, and 
the more intelligent class of farmers are not slow in finding this out. The 
question of being allowed to ride over the land is a very great one in America, 
and particularly in the west, where there are few settlers from the mother 
country who understand the game and like it. Wire, too, plays an impor- 
tant, though disagreeable, part in the history of most of the western packs, 
and this evil has been overcome at Midlothian by panelling fences with timber 
in the usual manner. The country, except for this evil, is unusually good in 
wet as well as in dry weather, as it is, for the most part, sound high land. 

The pack is composed of American hounds, which the Master considers 
better suited to his purposes, and as most of the subscribers are business men, 
the Club numbering few ladies among its followers, the drag is resorted to 
as a rule, but it is hoped that in due course of time, one day a week will be 
devoted to fox-hunting. 




DR. M. O MALLEY KNOTT, HON. HUNTSM.^N 



The Millbrook Hunt 

DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Black with green piping 

MASTER Charles C. Marshall. Esq.. Millbrook. N. Y. 

HON. HUNTSMAN J. Middleton O'MaUey Knott, M. D. 

HON. WHIPPER-IN W. A. Laing. Esq. 

HOUNDS 1 couples. English 

KENNELS "Milestone." Millbrook, N. Y. 

POST-OFFICE Millbrook, N. Y. 

DAYS OF MEETING Monday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON September 1st to May 15th 



DUTCHESS COUNTY, New York, is a comparatively unex- 
plored country from a hunting point of view, although Mr. G. 
Howard Davison of the Altamont Stock Farm maintained a 
small private pack in the late nineties which was used for a season or two 
for drag- and hare-hunting. In August, 1 907, a draft of six couples of Eng- 
lish foxhounds was imported by Mr. Charles C. Marshall, and these, aug- 
mented by seven couples, the gift of Mr. Charles D. Freeman, formerly 
Master of the Watchung Hunt, were established in kennels at Millbrook. 
A number of the residents of the neighborhood, all of whom owned large 
estates, subscribed to the maintenance of the pack, among them being Mrs. 
Daniel S. Lamont and the Messrs. Oakleigh Thome, L. Stuart Wing, H. 
H. Flagler, Barnes Compton, H. Louis Slade, J. T. Tower, J. Morgan Wing, 
and H. R. McLean. Mr. Charles C. Marshall, who owns the pack, was 
elected Master, and Dr. Middleton O'Malley Knott, formerly Master and 
Honorary Huntsman to the Watchung, consented to act in the latter capacity 
to the new organization, with Mr. W. A. Laing turning hounds to him. 

Mr. Marshall and Dr. Knott are both keen hound men, and are 
taking the utmost pains in their hound breeding in the hope of establishing a 

91 



THE MILLBROOK 

first-class pack to hunt the foxes which abound in the neighborhood. The 
country is an open one, consisting largely of extensive tracts of pasture land 
interspersed wath large, highly cultivated farms. The surface of the country 
varies, the minimum elevation bemg about four hundred feet and the max- 
imum thirteen hundred. Level stretches of large extent are found in the 
valleys, but the character of the country is generally rolling. The going is 
unusually firm, and owing to the dryness of the soil the season often remains 
open far into the winter, and hounds are seldom stopped by frost. The fences, 
which are quite free from wire, are usually of the post-and-rail or "snake" 
varieties, with a few stone walls scattered throughout the country, the enclos- 
ures being small and the jumping in some portions very trappy; so that a 
clever, quiet jumper is found safer and more useful than one who flies his 
fences. 

The attitude of the landowners is marked by friendliness, some of the 
farmers being regular members of the Hunt, and showing a keen appreciation 
of the sport. The Millbrook hunts both fox and hare, there being a quan- 
tity of both in the coverts, which, although fairly large, are not thick and can 
be ridden through in most cases. Some ten years before the Hunt was 
organized a number of German hares were introduced by Mr. Charles F. 
Dietrich, and these by rapid increase have now become a great nuisance to 
the farmers, who are only too glad to have them hunted. A drag is occa- 
sionally laid in the autumn, but Mr. Marshall hopes in time to do away with 
this form of the sport entirely. 



92 



The Millwood and Owl's Nest Hounds 



MASTERS N. I. Bowditch Esq. and R. F. Perkins. Esq. 

Freimingham, Mass. 

HUNTSMAN _ One of the Masters 

HON. WHIPPER-IN John P. Bowditch. Esq. 

HOUNDS - 1 5 couples, American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Framingham. Mass. 

DAYS OF MEETING Three days a week 

LENGTH OF SEASON September 1st to March 1st 

BEFORE the present Master of the Middlesex Foxhounds was old 
enough to go to school, fox-hunting m Middlesex County, Massa- 
chusetts, was firmly established, and although the Millwood and 
Owl's Nest Hounds are now little more than a small pnvate pack, the Mas- 
ters of the Norfolk and the Middlesex never hunt the Framingham country 
without asking permission of Mr. N. I. Bowditch, to whom the hereditary 
title of M. F. H. has descended. 

As early as 1866, Mr. E. F. Bowditch settled in Framingham, and his 
small private pack, which was kenneled at " Millwood," his country-seat, has 
always been kept up by his sons. Mr. Robert F. Perkins, the Master of 
the Owl's Nest Hounds, who, in his college days, was a frequent visitor at 
" Millwood, " has been kind enough to give the authors some of his recollec- 
tions of the early days, which we feel are of sufficient interest to the younger 
generation of New England sportsmen to quote in full : 

" The private pack of E. F. Bowditch, Esq., has for fifteen years missed the 
Master, who cared not only for the science of fox-hunting but also for the 
splendid hospitality that went with it, the whole being simply an incident in 
the busy life of a gentleman of means who lived all the year round on his 
own estate and who combined his farming — which indeed embraced every 
effort in that direction calculated to help the farmer — with the management 

93 



THE MILLWOOD AND OWL'S NEST 

of hospitals and other charitable organizations. Mr. Bowditch was always 
in the saddle, winter and summer, at about six o'clock in the morning, and 
doubtless the first of the jumping began in getting from one part of the farm 
to another in his daily inspection of the estate. Many a tumble have I seen 
at these times when larking green ones — and they were all pretty green in 
those days — or trying experiments in jumping without girths or stirrups. It 
was easy enough to give up the latter, but the combination usually stumped 
us, and saddle and rider would find themselves together on the ground. The 
morning hour was the favorite one for such things, and fox-hunting came 
naturally enough; first, I think, with hounds from the Myopia — then a very 
young organization itself — and later with drafts from England and from 
Canada. These gradually gave way to the 'native' or half-bred animal 
which is the sort of hound kept at ' Millwood ' today. At that time, I be- 
lieve, there was no other riding to hounds in New England, except at 
Myopia, and there were no particular traditions to follow. Mr. Bowditch 
had never hunted in England nor had he visited the gentlemen hunting their 
own hounds in the south or in the Genesee Valley, so that the details of 
kennel management and breeding and even fox-hunting itself, were mere in- 
cidents in the general plan of a pleasant existence. 

" Even so, many a younger and lighter man found the task of following the 
Master, on old ' Pumpkin,' over his country at the tail of his small and undis- 
ciplined pack, none too easy. There were plenty of foxes and little, if any, 
wire in the early days and I verily believe that old Brown, the huntsman, 
knew personally every fox in the country-side; and if, as was often the case, 
we lost the hounds, he would take us either to them, or to the earth, by some 
short cut. 

" Old Brown was, and still is, for that matter, an Englishman, and took most 
naturally to the sport. Mounted on 'Soapsuds,' a Roman-nosed yellow 
beast, he negotiated the country in a most marvelous manner. It could never 
be said that he was a bold rider and it wouldn't have helped him if he had 
been, for 'Soapsuds' flew nothing, he climbed, and he knew all the gaps 
and short cuts. I can almost hear old Brown talking to his horse and his 
hounds now — it was all a feature of the morning, and such mornings as those 

94 



I 



THE MILLWOOD AND OWL'S NEST 

were — when we saw the sun rise from the top of Nobscot Mountain! Two 
or three times a week the hounds went out, the Field consisting of the family 
and any friends who happened to be on hand. Scrambled eggs and coffee 
before it was light, a new horse to try or an old one to exercise — likely 
enough a couple or two of new hounds or youngsters — and the duties of 
town or college seemed to have mighty little place in the minds of the party 
that started away from the house. 

" One of the events always looked forward to and planned for with much 
pleasure was the visit of the Myopia hounds under the Mastership of Frank 
Seabury, Esq. Many of the Myopia Field, men and women, came with 
their horses and servants, to be quartered either at the little Inn in the village 
or to be guests at ' Millwood.' Such evenings as we had before the big hall 
fireplace, the huntsman coming for his morning orders, interrupting the stories 
and music ! Sometimes there was a supper followed by dancing to the 
music of two fiddlers at the old Wayside Inn in Sudbury where of late years 
the Norfolk and Middlesex hounds have held many a successful meet. 
Frank Codman was there and Ned Choate, ' Marsh ' Abbott and George 
Warren and his sister, and Murray Forbes, Fletcher Abbott and many 
another, some of whom have now gone on, although the old Master, Mr. 
Frank Seabury, is still in the saddle. If all these recollections of those old 
days are neither useful nor scientific data on fox-hunting, at least they con- 
stitute the pleasantest elements of the whole thing and will be remembered 
for many a long year by those of us who enjoyed them. 

" But there was no lack of hard riding at times and although there were 
no scarlet coats, except when the Myopia people joined us, horses were 
turned out in a workmanlike fashion. 

"There were no Horse or Hound shows then, and no particular incentive 
to correct appointments, but there certainly was fox-hunting under the 
pleasantest conditions." 

After Mr. Bowditch's death, in 1 892, the life of the hunting went out for 
a time, though it was gradually taken up again by Mr. N. I. Bowditch, to 
whom the hereditary Mastership of the country had descended. Since 1 895, 
the hunting has been more active, although lack of time to devote to it has 

95 



THE MILLWOOD AND OWL'S NEST 

been the reason for its irregularity. Of late years, there has scarcely been 
a week in the season that either the Millwood Hounds, now reinforced by 
southern drafts and ably managed by Mr. John P. Bowditch and his sister 
Miss Elizabeth Bowditch, or the Owl's Nest Hounds — Mr. Perkins' — 
have not been out. Sometimes there is a Field of a dozen, oftener only the 
family and a few guests ; but the hunting has always prospered and always 
will, in spite of the hindrance of wire, for the farmers are used to the family 
and are always glad to see them. 

Mr. Perkins is still keen and always in the saddle with his hounds, hunt- 
ing them himself, and in speaking of the sport, past and present, he concludes 
as follows : 

" Old Brown sits by his cottage door and wishes us well, as we ride by 
with the grand-children his old Master never saw, and the tears come into 
the old man's eyes at the memory of the days that will never come again." 



% 



The Missouri Hunt and Polo Club 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Old gold 

MASTER - St. Clair Streett. M.D. 

SECRETARY F. S. Young, Esq., Kansas City, Mo. 

HUNTSMAN L. N. Nagill 

WHIPPERS-IN - \ \'\ Y; W- Guernsey 

( 2nd, Hall Harrison 

HOUNDS \ ^ '^°"P'"' Eng'isli 

( 8 couples, American 

KENNELS 5 miles south of Kansas City, Mo. 

POST-OFFICE - Westport Station, Kansas City, Mo. 

DAYS OF MEETING Wednesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON \ °f,^;' l'V°/^"*7 '??. 

( and March 1 5th to May 1 5th 



SHORTLY after the formation of tfie Onwentsia Hunt, near Chicago, 
a number of gentlemen of Kansas City, Missouri, decided to form a 
club in that vicinity for the furtherance of hunting or, rather, of rid- 
ing to hounds. As those who have been in the western part of Amenca 
are aware, wire fencing is general, and while the line of the drag can be 
laid in such a manner as to avoid this, it is quite out of the question to 
hunt foxes where wire is as plentiful as it is about Kansas City. Drag- 
hunting, therefore, has taken the place of the better sport ; and in a country 
where all the fences are high enough and strong enough to keep m stock, no 
one can say that the Missourians have chosen a child's game. 

Except for the superabundance of wire, the founders of the club had 
everything in their favor, many residents of Kansas City being found who 
were only too glad to jom m the project. 

In 1 902, then, the Missouri Hunt and Polo Club was duly incorporated 
under the laws of the State of Missouri, and in the autumn Mr. S. H. Velie, 

97 



THE MISSOURI 

Jr., was elected Master, and began hunting with a draft of hounds procured 
from the Toronto. The sport proved very popular, and in 1 903 found a 
greater following, Mr. Velie continuing in office during 1903 and 1904, 
when the present Master, Dr. St. Clair Streett, was elected. Various addi- 
tions to the pack have been made, some hounds having been procured from 
the London Hunt, of London, Ontario, and the Middlesex Foxhounds, of 
South Lincoln, Mass., as well as some American hounds which were drafted 
from the Radnor Hunt. The present Master has some fourteen couples in 
the kennels, about equally divided between American and English, and he 
is breeding the American dogs to the English bitches, with a view to getting 
a fast draghound with the steadiness and reliability of the English hound, 
and especially the babbling ability of his American cousin. So much for the 
pack. As for the mounts, it may be remarked that Kansas City can boast 
a very fine lot of hunters. Dr. Streett's own string, three of which are shown 
in one of the illustrations to this article, are all of them clean-breds, or very 
nearly so, and as the Master has the reputation of going hard, it goes with- 
out saying that they can jump and gallop. 

The country, as has been said, is cursed with wire, but except for that it 
is almost ideal from a drag-hunting point of view. It is rolling in places, with 
a fair amount of open woodland, and there are great stretches of grassland 
and pasture enclosed with high, strong fences. Nothing but a big-jumping, 
clean-bred horse can live behind a fast pack in such a country as this, and 
that is the kind of animal in general use. Dr. Streett, acting for the Club, 
has taken great pains to make friends with the landowners in the country, and 
the result is very gratifying. Each year the Club gives a luncheon to the 
farmers of the vicinity, and always welcomes them to its Field Day and polo 
matches. Many of the landowners are members of the Hunt, and the Mas- 
ter is always glad to see them in the Field behind the hounds. During the 
last year Dr. Streett's efforts in this direction have met wath such success that 
the Hunt has now an area over which to ride more than five times as large 
as in the years of its infancy. 

The Club maintains its own stables, kennels, schooling ground and polo 
field at Westport Station, some five miles south of Kansas City, and from 



I 



4 



THE MISSOURI 

October 1 st to January 1 0th, and again for two months from March I 5th, 
in the spring, the hunting is in full swing. In time it is hoped that arrange- 
ments can be made with the landowners to put panels of rails in the wire 
fences, and thus eventually do away with the barrier to fox-hunting. Foxes 
are plentiful, and it seems a pity not to make the best of a very good op- 
portunity ; by far the best in the western states. 



99 



The Monmouth County Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR - Claret color 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, claret colored facings 

MASTER - Robert J. Collier, Esq., Eatontown. N. J. 

HUNTSMAN - - John Fitzpatrick 

) 1 st, Nicholas Van Winkle 



WHIPPERS-IN 



2nd, Harvey Bemis 



HOUNDS \ l\ '^°"P^'' ^^'^^'^ 

( zj couples, American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Eatontown, N. J. 

DAYS np MFFTINP S Draghounds, Monday, Thursday and Saturday 

( Foxhounds, Tuesday, Wednesday emd Friday 

LENGTH OF SEASON S ^'itf l','° "''T^, 1= r 

( and March 1st to Apr J 25 th 



MR. P. F. COLLIER, who has always been identified with 
cross-country sport in this country, started, in the year 1 89 1 , a 
pack of hounds of his own, building suitable kennels on his es- 
tate at Eatontown, New Jersey. Mr. Collier, who is an Irishman by birth, 
is in the habit of going every year to his mother country for part of the hunt- 
ing season; in fact the jovial face of the Master of the Monmouth County 
is almost as well-known with the Meath as it is in his own country. What 
more natural, then, than that he should import considerable drafts of hounds 
from time to time, and that these importations should come mainly from the 
Meath, whose Master, Mr. John Watson, is an intimate friend of his? 

Few men are better qualified to give advice on the subject of hound-man- 
agement than Mr. Watson, who has had the practical control of the Meath 
pack for more than forty years, hunting the hounds himself during most of 
that period, and Mr. Collier is lucky in having so able a mentor. Mr. 
Collier's horses, too, come from the Meath country, and when one sees the 

100 





■*1 



THE MONMOUTH COUNTY 

manner in which he turns out his Hunt Staff, it is difficult to find fault with 
their selection. 

The Monmouth County country, which lies about Eatontown and Red 
Bank, New Jersey, is very well suited to drag-hunting, which is the manner 
in which the sport was first followed. Finding that the climate of Monmouth 
County was unsuited to a long season, the Master took his hounds to Chevy 
Chase, Maryland, in 1 894, for part of the winter season, and there took alter- 
nate days with the Chevy Chase, hunting about Washington late into the year. 

Drag-hunting in Monmouth County was never given up ; but this being a 
private pack, Mr. Collier has been accustomed to take his hounds at certain 
times of the year to outside countries, and in 1 900 they went to Newport 
for a season of about six weeks. There are no hounds near Newport, and 
as the summer residents of that well-known watering-place have been enthu- 
siastic in their support of Mr. Collier's pack, the fields turning out in pretty 
considerable numbers for the six weeks early in the season in which he has 
had them there, he has continued to make this a yearly practice. 

In 1 904, when Mr. Foxhall Keene resigned the Mastership of the Meadow 
Brook Hunt, Mr. Collier was elected to take his place, and feelmg that he 
could hardly shoulder the responsibility of two packs of hounds, his son, Mr. 
Robert J. Collier, undertook the management of the home pack, and has 
handled it with great success. 

Mr. Collier has now resigned Mastership at Meadow Brook, and wall prob- 
ably, in the future, spend most of his time with his own hounds. In 1 904 he 
received from Mr. Norman Harris of Louisville, Kentucky, a present of four 
couples of American hounds, and these, together with drafts from the kennels 
of Mr. Walker and Mr. Trigg in the south, have formed the nucleus of his 
American pack, he being of the opinion that in his country American hounds 
can show better sport after foxes than their English cousins. 

The country over which the Monmouth County hounds hunt is larger and 
better than any about New York ; and having always been hunted, not by 
a club, but by a private pack, the landowners are somewhat easier to deal 
with, as, of course, a Master who is responsible to no one, and who has al- 
ways lived in the country, can be on the most cordial terms with the farmers. 

10) 



THE MONMOUTH COUNTY 

As to the character of the country, — there are a great many ditches and 
big post-and-rail fences, — and Mr. Collier states that he considers that Irish 
horses are better suited to it than any other type. He maintains a very large 
stable himself, and is always glad to give a mount to visiting sportsmen, while 
there is an excellent livery stable at Red Bank, N. J., where men who come 
down for the hunting season can put up mounts. There are also several 
jobbing stables nearby, so that a man wishing to run down from New York, 
only twenty-five miles away, for a day's hunting, can easily be accommodated. 

Most of the meets are held between Matteawan and Freehold, both of 
which places are within an hour's ride of the city of New York. 



102 



The Montreal Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE UNIFORM Scarlet coat, dark blue collar, facings and piping 

( For Hunt Servants) 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, dark blue coUar and facing* 

MASTER A. E. Ogilvie. Esq. 

HON. SECRETARY AUan G. Law. Esq.. Montreal, P. Q., Canada 

HUNTSMAN - Will NichoUs 

WHIPPER-IN Fred NichoUs 

HOUNDS 40 couples, English 

KENNELS C8te de Neige, Montreal, P. Q., Canada 

POST-OFFICE Montreal, P. Q., Canada 

DAYS OF MEETING Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON August 15th to December 1st 



WHILE the Montreal Hunt, founded in 1 826, is not in one sense 
the oldest organization of its kind on the continent, its founda- 
tion being antedated by that of the Brooklyn Hunt and of the 
Gloucester Fox Hunting Club, yet it is the only one in America which can 
show a continuous record under practically the same management for eighty- 
two years. It stands, today, at the head of all the Hunts in America, and 
there is scarcely a hunting man. English. French or American, who does not 
acknowledge its supremacy. 

Unfortunately a complete record of its history is lacking, partly owing to 
the destruction by fire of the early papers. Thanks for much of the follow- 
ing information is due to Dr. Charles McEachran. who during his Master- 
ship collected from all available sources the records now in existence. 

In 1 826. Mr. William Forsyth removed a pack of English foxhounds 
from Three Rivers to Montreal, the kennels at that time being situated op- 
posite Logan's farm. In those days there was comparatively little hunting 

103 



THE MONTREAL 

on the Island of Montreal. The vulpine family seemed indigenous to the 
south side of the river, and the result was that the majority of runs were in 
the region of Laprairie and Chambly. Mr. John Forsyth, son of the founder 
of the Hunt, became Master in 1 834, and proved to be a chip of the old 
block; a thorough sportsman and a hard rider. He remained in office for 
three seasons. 

In 1837, Capt. Walter Jones of the Queen's Light Dragoons succeeded 
him, filling the position of Master with honor for two years ; after which 
Capt. T. J. Stockley, Sr., R. A., carried the horn until 1 842. It was about 
this time that the regular Hunt Steeplechases were inaugurated, and cups 
valued all the way from five hundred to seven hundred and fifty dollars were 
the trophies competed for. 

In 1 842, the Mastership was assumed by T. J. Stockley, Jr., R. A., son 
of the former M. F. H. His term of office was two years, at the end of 
which time he was succeeded by Captain, The Honorable H. Fane Keane, 
R. E. Difficulties began to arise, especially of a financial nature, after the 
Captain had held the pack together for three years, and force of circum- 
stances necessitated its sale to Mr. Hubert and some sporting friends in 
Cobourg. For the next three years Montreal was without a pack of hounds, 
but in 1 85 1 Mr. Hubert went home to the " old country," and the pack was 
sold again to some enthusiasts m Montreal, who elected Lieutenant Charles 
Lutyens of the 20th Regiment (afterwards a world-renowned animal painter) 
as Master. Some of his pictures are owned in Montreal, and a very fine 
hunting scene, "Killed in the Fog," is still in the possession of the family of 
the late Donald Lorn Macdougall, Esq. In 1 852, Lieutenant Lutyens was 
succeeded by Lieutenant J. Ponsonby Cox, R. E., who held the Master- 
ship until 1 854, when he was called upon to serve his country in the Crimea. 

The withdrawal of the military influence from the Hunt at this time was 
not conducive to its welfare, but seldom does necessity fail to produce the 
man, and in this particular dilemma it was Mr. Donald Lorn Macdougall who 
filled the breach, and assumed for six years almost the entire expense of the 
Hunt. In 1 859, the kennels were removed to the comer of St. Joseph and 
Guy Streets, and Mr. Alloway became Acting Master and Huntsman, thus 

104 



THE MONTREAL 

relieving Mr. Macdougall of many of his arduous duties in the field. Ken- 
nedy, the huntsman, had grown too old, and during this period Drysdale 
acted as whipper-in to Mr. Macdougall and Mr. Alloway, the latter hunting 
the hounds until 1 860. Mr. D. A. Bellhouse and Major J. T. D. Bourke 
were elected to the Mastership in rapid succession ; neither of them remain- 
ing long in office; and in 1862, Captain Francis De Winton, R. A., was 
elected Master, holding the position until 1864. After that no regular 
Master was appointed for a time, and the affairs of the Hunt were left in 
the hands of a committee, of which Mr. W. M. Ramsay was chairman, the 
other members being Captain Money, Mr. Thomas Davidson, and Mr. 
William Cunningham. 

In 1 867, however, the Hunt was happy in the choice of a Master, for in 
November of that year Mr. John Crawford was elected for the first time. 
To anyone at all acquainted with the Hunt, a description of that typical 
old sportsman would seem superfluous, for he was in his time a living, breath- 
ing example of what riding can do in the way of preserving healthy vitality 
long after the span of three score years and ten has been passed. (Mr. 
Crawford died in April, 1903, at the age of ninety, having followed the 
hounds within two years of his death.) He filled the position for six years, 
and during that time the Mastership was no sinecure. There were many 
difficulties to be overcome, and they were overcome, for Mr. Crawford had 
administrative talents, as well as being a straight rider and a sportsman to 
the core. The stiffest obstacles in the Pointe Claire country had no terrors 
for him ; neither had any of the other impediments that the Mastership of a 
Hunt involves. He was equal to them all. 

Mr. Andrew Allan was unanimously elected Master in 1 874, and was 
assisted by a hard working committee, so that, although not doing much cross- 
country work himself, his resignation in 1 876 was regretted by everyone. 
During his Mastership he was well represented in the field by his two sons, 
Jack and Hugh Allan, the latter becoming later the first Master of the 
Myopia Hunt in Essex County, Massachusetts. 

Following him, Mr. Crawford accepted the Mastership for the second 
time, retaining command for two years, being followed by Mr. J. R. Hutchins 

105 



THE MONTREAL 

for one year ; and then, in 1 879, by Captain E. A. C. Campbell of St. 
Hillaire, an officer of the 92nd Highlanders. Captain Campbell had great 
ambitions, and during his Mastership tried his best to raise the standard of 
the Hunt so that it might compare favorably, not only with the other Hunts 
in America, but also with those in England. Mr. A. Baumgarten, who suc- 
ceeded him in 1 882, continued to work along the same lines, and when he 
finally resigned, in 1 887, the Hunt was in much better shape than ever be- 
fore. Mr. Hugh Paton assumed the Mastership on the retirement of Mr. 
Baumgarten, and although this was his first term as Master, still, as far back 
as 1 870, he had done duty in the position of Honorary Secretary and Treas- 
urer. 

In 1 888, there was difficulty in getting anyone to accept the responsibility 
of the office which Mr. Paton found it impossible to retain, owing to his 
business ; and it was only after much solicitation that Mr. Crawford again 
consented to act. On February 3rd, 1888, Mr. Crawford informed the 
club that he was willing to undertake the duties of Master, but would only 
do so under the express condition that the hunt committee promise to work 
energetically. " I am too old," the Squire said, "to be expected to look after 
the hounds and do all the hard work that a Master should. You must take 
that off my shoulders, and I will do everything I can to further the interests 
of the Hunt ; but I cannot, at my time of life, be expected to hunt three 
days a week regularly through the season." 

Mr. Crawford continued as Master until 1 89 1 , resigning at the age of 
seventy-eight, when Sir H. Montagu Allan was unanimously elected. He 
held the position for five years, and during his term of office much was done 
to preserve the foxes in the district, and the Hunt owes much of the present 
excellent condition of its country to him. 

On his resignation, in 1 896, Mr. George R. Hooper was elected, holding 
office for five years ; and it was during his regime that the kennels were re- 
moved from Delormier Avenue to the land at Cote de Neige, where they 
now stand. 

On his resignation, in 1 90 1 , Dr. Charles McEachran was elected, and a 
more happy selection than the genial Scotchman it would have been hard to 

106 



THE MONTREAL 

find. " Doctor Charley," who has been at the game all his days, began his 
hunting in Scotland, and has been a warm supporter of the Montreal Hunt 
ever since coming to Canada. His official position as Government Inspector 
has brought him into close touch with many of the landowners, and he was 
a very popular Master with them as well as with his Field. His knowl- 
edge of hounds and hunting is universally admitted, and it was his experi- 
ence in these matters that led to his election as one of the judges of the 
English-American foxhound match which took place in the Piedmont Val- 
ley of Virginia in 1 905, where the genial Doctor made himself as popular 
with the Virginians as he was with his Field at home. At the end of five 
years he resigned, and Mr. W. R. Miller was elected in his place. 
While a horseman rather than a hound man, to begin with, Mr. Miller 
quickly caught the hound fever, and in 1906, when the first National 
Hound Show was held at South Lincoln, Massachusetts, was very strong in 
his support of it, bringing a large entry to the show and using all his influ- 
ence to make it the success which it proved. Unfortunately he found 
that the Mastership took too much of his time, and in 1 907 he resigned, 
his office being filled by the present Master, A. E. Ogilvie, Esq., who 
had been his right-hand man as Honorary Secretary of the Hunt through- 
out his Mastership. 

Mr. Ogilvie is in dead earnest, and while he was unable to show any 
hounds at the National Hound Show in 1 908, he was a large purchaser at 
the Rugby hound sale in England, securing some hounds, through the kind 
offices of Mr. T. Butt Miller, M. F. H., from the Atherstone and the 
Meynell. With plenty of time to devote to the pack and the best of blood 
to breed from, the next few years under Mr. Ogilvie's regime should show a 
marked improvement in its quality. 

The Montreal has been very lucky in having but few changes of hunts- 
men during its long period of existence, thus insuring very little change in its 
policy of hound-breeding. The first huntsman was Outhet, who was suc- 
ceeded by Morris, who in his turn was followed by Kennedy ; the latter 
finally resigning in 1 859, when William Drysdale acted as kennel huntsman 
and whipper-in to Mr. Alloway, the then acting M. F. H. Mr. Alloway 

107 



THE MONTREAL 

hunted the hounds himself until 1 866, when Drysdale was made huntsman, 
which place he filled with honor until 1 899. Thus it will be seen that from 
1 859 until the present date, a period of almost fifty years, there have been 
but two huntsmen. 

On the retirement of Drysdale in 1890, a new period of activity began. 
Will Nicholls was sent to Montreal by Edward Cotesworth, at that time 
huntsman to the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire hounds in Scotland. Nicholls 
had been under the tutelage of Cotesworth as first whipper-in, and when 
the latter was asked by the Montreal Master as to Nicholls' qualifications 
to take charge of the Canadian pack, he was able to reply most favor- 
ably, and Nicholls has proved a very successful choice. Young, active, 
enthusiastic, an excellent horseman and a keen lover of sport, he has 
made himself a part of the Hunt, and it v^all be a sorry day indeed for the 
Montreal when he retires. In the eighteen years he has held his posi- 
tion, he has been unflagging in his efforts to improve his hounds, and the 
pack has to-day no supenors and but few equals in the field, while on the 
flags they stand in the front rank. During the first part of Nicholls' ser- 
vice, most of the drafts procured from abroad came from the Linlithgow and 
Stirlingshire, while the Croome, Old Berkshire and Lord Eglinton's blood 
played a conspicuous part. Of late years Mr. Butt Miller, M. F. H. of 
one of the Vale of White Horse packs, has taken a great interest in the 
Montreal, and has from time to time sent them valuable additions from his 
own and other kennels, as well as acting as their representative at Rugby 
hound sales. 

Nicholls has been successful in breeding, and the Montreal entries are 
always of very high quality. His old mentor, — now with the Middlesex, 
— and he, have many a friendly tussle on the flags of the National Hound 
Show ; and honors are about even. In the field, he is an excellent hunts- 
man, his hounds being under perfect control, and working for him and wath 
him as good hounds should. Foxes are plenty in the Montreal country, 
and are well looked after, and it is very seldom that a fox is not accounted 
for in one way or another. 

The country hunted consists of the Island of Montreal and the adjacent 

108 



THE MONTREAL 

Isles of Jesu and Bizard, and the mainland north ; about thirty-seven miles east 
to west and thirty-four miles north to south. The fences vary with the character 
of the country; easily negotiated stone walls in the smooth pastures of the St. 
Anne's district, post-and-rails on Isle of Jesu, and in the north the same 
kind of a fence with a wide ditch. A clever horse that can jump and stay 
is required. 

One of the authors remembers a very good day's hunting with the Mont- 
real, during the season of 1 906, in their Pointe Claire country. The country 
itself was all that could be desired, — small coverts with a good expanse of 
open going, over which hounds took the Field at a rattling pace when once 
they had forced their fox out of cover, — beautiful galloping, with nice, clean 
rail fences, interrupted occasionally by a stone wall, until they finally put 
him to ground under a pile of old rails, after a fast burst of thirty minutes ; 
and then another covert drawn and a second fox found and run until dark- 
ness made it necessary to take hounds back to the waiting train and so to 
Montreal. Like this Pointe Claire country, many of the best districts are 
reached by reiil, and it is a weekly occurrence with the Montreal to " train " 
to meets. 

During recents years the increasing use of wire fencing has made it 
necessary to contrive some regular method of dealing with the evil, and 
there is now a wire fund, maintained by private subscription and kept sep- 
arate from the accounts of the Hunt, which is expended solely for putting 
long timber panels in the ware fences in all parts of the country. The 
kennels, hunt stables and clubhouse are situated at Cote de Neige, a little 
suburb of Montreal about six miles from the heart of the city, and while the 
nearest meet is about eight miles from the kennels, at Cartierville, their situa- 
tion is such that it is very easy to " train " to meets in all parts of the island 
of Montreal, and at times beyond its confines. The clubhouse is most 
charmingly situated, overlooking the flat plain which lies toward Cartierville 
on the north side of the mountain from which the city of Montreal takes its 
name. Here it is that the members meet to talk over the day's sport, or in 
the winter to sit about the fire and discuss the good times of the past season. 

Among the regular followers in the Field there have always been a good 

109 



THE MONTREAL 



many men interested in horse-breeding and in steeplechasing, and the Hunt 
has had its regular race meeting every autumn since 1 837 ; when the Mont- 
real Hunt Cup, a steeplechase of three miles, has been the feature of these 
annual meetings. Up to 1 907, this race was for horses owned and hunted 
regularly by members of the Montreal Hunt, but at that time it was decided 
to extend these conditions, and horses holding qualified hunter's certificates 
from the Canadian Hunt Association or the National Steeplechase and 
Hunt Association, ridden by gentlemen riders holding licenses from one of 
the above associations, are now eligible. As this is probably the oldest 
hunter's steeplechase in America, we give below a list of the winners since 
1855, the records before that year having been lost by fire. 

Yeai Owner 

1855 Mr. H. Hogan's ch.g. 

1856 Capt. Elwes's ch.m. 

1857 No race 

1858 Mr. Mahiot's ch.g. 

1 859 Mr. C. F. Elwes's ch.m. 

1 860 Capt. Treheme's b.m. 

1861 Dr. Kirvin's b.g. 

1 862 Capt. de Winton's b.g. 

1863 M.H. Hogan's 

1864 Mr. D. L. MacDougall's 

1865 Mr. TTiomas Davidson's 

1 866 No race 

1867 No race 

1 868 No race 

1869 Mr. A. Torrance's ch.m. 

1870 Mr. H. MacDougall's ch.g. 

1871 Mr. Andrew Allan's ch.m. 

1 872 Mr. D. J. Bannatyne's ch.h. 

1 873 Mr. Andrew Allan's ch.h. 

1 874 Dr. W. H. Hingston's ch.g. 

1 875 Mr. Andrew Allan's ch.h. 

1876 Major Handyside's b.h. 

1877 Montreal Hunt's b.g. 

1878 Mr. Jas. O'Brien's ch.g. 



Horse 


Rider 


Broker 


Mr. H. S. MacDougall 


Brunette 


Owner 


Royal 


Mr. Harry W. Alloway 


Brunette 


Owner 


Fireaway 


Mr. Harry W. Alloway 


Montcalm 


Capt. Parker 


Fearaway 


Capt. C. White 


Wild Irishman 


Capt. Elwes 


Valparaiso 


Mr. Hany W. Alloway 


The Squire 


Mr. Harry W. Alloway 



Hopeful 


Mr. C. J. Alloway 


Woodstock 


Mr. C. J. Alloway 


Primrose 


Mr. C. J. Alloway 


Milesain 


Owner 


Tradewind 


Mr. C. J. Alloway 


Bibakiba 


Mr. F. L. Hart 


Astronomer 


Mr. C. J. Alloway 


Moonstone 


Mr. J. Alex. Gordon 


Fusillier 


Mr. J. Alex. Gordon 


Pilot 


Mr. S. Penniston 


no 





THE MONTREAL 



Year Owner Horse 

1879 Mr. C. J. Alloways ch.h. Jack Frost 

1880 Mr. J. E. Mullin'sb.h. Moonstone 

1881 Mr. J. P. Dawes" ch.m. Rose 

1 882 Mr. Alex. Esdaile's gr.g. Little Jack 

1 883 Mr. S. Penniston's ch.g. PUot 

1 884 Mr. A. E. Penniston's ch.m. Madeline 

1 885 Mr. F. H. Penniston's ch.m. Ivy 

1886 Mr. H. Drysdale's ch.g. Echo 

1887 Dr. F^ Craik's ch.m. Wishimay 

1888 Mr. H. Drysdale's ch.g. Echo 

1 889 Mr. H. Drysdale's ch.g. Slickaway 

1890 Mr. E. J. Major's br.g. Hardtimes 

1891 Mr. E. J. Major's br.g. Slickaway 

1 892 Mr. Colin Ccunpbell's b.g. Lancer 

1893 Mr. H. Montagu Allan's br.g. Mamwood 

1894 Mr. Wm. Hendrie, Jr's br.g. Royal Rob 

1895 Mr. Wm. Hendrie Jr.'s br.g. Royal Rob 

1 896 Mr. F. Beardmore's b.g. Laddie 

1897 Dr. Chas. McEachran's ch.m. Magic 

1 898 Mr. J. H. Smith's ch.g. The Squire 

1899 Dr. Chas. McEachran's ch.g The Pal 

1900 Mr. Colin Campbell's br.g. Jim Lisle 

1901 Mr. J. C. Watson's ch.m. Round View 

1902 Mr. J. C. Watson's ch.m. Round View 

1903 Mr. H. H. Learmont's b.g. 

1904 Mr. H. H. Learmont's b.g. 

1 905 Mr. E. de B. Strathy's b.g. 

1906 Mr. H. H. Learmont's b.g. 
1907 



Rider 
Owner 

Mr. J. Alex. L. Strathy 
Mr. J. Alex. L. Strathy 
Mr. S. Penniston 
Owner 

Mr. C. W. Penniston 
Mr. C. W. Penniston 
Mr. J. Alex L. Strathy 
Mr. F. Elliott 
Mr. F. Elliott 
Mr. F. Elliott 
Owner 
Owner 
Owner 

Mr. L. Mel. Speckman 
Mr. Colin Campbell 
Mr. Colin Campbell 
Owner 

Mr. H. G. Johnston 
Owner 

Mr. H. G. Johnston 
Owner 
Mr. Murray Hendrix 



Owner 
Bob McGregor Mr. John Sector 
Bob McGregor Mr. John Sector 
Burnap Owner 

Bob McGregor Mr. E de B. Strathy 
Mr. A. Henry Higginson's blk.g. Oweussa Mr. J. C. Watson 

The race for this Hunt Cup was held for a long time over a natural 
course laid out on the farms of one or another of the Hunt members, but in 
1906, the meeting was held for the first time on the new course of the 
Montreal Jockey Club at Blue Bonnets, some eight miles outside of the 
city, where it is now an annual event. The racing spirit has been fostered 
in the Province of Quebec mainly by the Hunt members, and the newly 
formed Montreal Jockey Club has for its President an ex-Master, Sir H. 

Ill 



THE MONTREAL 

Montagu Allan, while its Executive Committee and Board of Directors are 
also mainly composed of members of the Hunt. 

In connection with the Montreal Hunt, all Montrealers feel proud to 
think that if it is not the oldest, it is one of the oldest Hunts on this conti- 
nent, and everything is done as nearly as possible on the plans pursued by 
the best establishments in England. Genuine hunting of only the wald fox is 
made a rule. A complete map of the country is furnished each member, 
showing every road, brook, village, shoeing-forge and covert. Every fox's 
earth in the hunting country is known, and a good-earth stopper is employed ; 
an example which might well be followed by many hunts on this continent. 



112 



Mr. HITCHCOCK'S Hounds 

MASTER Thomas Hitchcock. Jr., Esq. 

HUNTSMAN The Master 

WHIPPER-IN J. Lambert 

HOUNDS 40 couples, American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Aiken, S. C. 

DAYS OF MEETING Four days a week 

LENGTH OF SEASON November 15th to March Ist 

FEW men who have hunted in England and seen the excellent work 
of a good English pack will listen to any comparison between 
English and American hounds, or between the two methods 
of following the sport of fox-hunting. Mr. Thomas Hitchcock, Jr., was 
educated at Oxford University and has hunted with almost all of the best 
packs in the Kingdom, and yet he maintains forty couples of American 
hounds — one of the largest packs in the country — on his estate at Aiken, 
South Carolina, and is as staunch an upholder of the American hound as 
he was of the English twenty years ago. Mr. Hitchcock was one of the 
men who were instrumental in founding the Meadow Brook Hunt and was 
one of its earliest Masters, continuing to hunt there to-day at such times as 
he is at his home at Westbury, Long Island. 

Some years ago, looking about for a place where he could hunt through- 
out the winter, he hit upon Aiken, South Carolina, as the most suitable 
locality, and during the last decade has maintained there his private pack of 
foxhounds, hunting them himself usually four days a week from the mid- 
dle of November until the end of February. 

While Mr. Hitchcock is partial to the American hound, he, of course, 
admits the good qualities of the English, but insists that for the kind of 
country which he hunts the Americans are far superior. His views are so 
strong, and were so clearly expressed to one of the authors of this volume a 

113 



MR. HITCHCOCK'S 

year or so ago, that we are tempted to give them in full. It was after a 
day with the Middlesex hounds in Virginia, and Mr. Hitchcock, on the 
train to Washington that evening, in the company of the M. F. H., 
expressed himself as follows : — 

" You mark my words," he said, " you'll change, just as 1 did. Fifteen 
years ago I thought there was nothing like the English foxhound, and I am 
not sure there is for his own country, but not for America, and certamly 
not for the dry sandy soil of my South Carolina country. You see, the 
country about Aiken is wooded with scrub, the going is rough, although 
there is nothing much to stop you except the creeks, which are swampy 
and impossible to cross except at certain fords — there is practically no wire, 
thank Heaven! — and the jumping is not big. Now, taking these facts into 
consideration, and they are largely true of many of the hunting countries in 
America, we've got to have a hound with a lot of initiative, because in 
many cases the huntsman won't be there to help him, a very keen nose, be- 
cause the scent is bad, and lots of voice to tell us where he is. I don't 
think English hounds have these points, at any rate in so great a degree as 
the Americans. 

" At Aiken, we hunt early in the morning, just about daylight. We have 
to do so to take advantage of the dew, — as the soil is fearfully dry, so 
much so that I don't think an English hound would own a line half the 
time. You saw the trouble to-day when the line was foiled by a cur dog 
and your hounds were at fault. They picked it up again, of course, and 
hunted it beautifully, but, they had to be cast to do it. English hounds waste 
time, that's the trouble, and you can't waste time when you're hunting a 
fox." The Master of the Middlesex smoked on in silence and Mr. Hitch- 
cock continued: "Scent's a queer thing; nobody understands it, and every- 
body has theories about it, mine is this" — he took a couple of puffs from 
his cigar and drew the unlighted end along his coat-sleeve. A little of the 
smoke clung to the cloth, as it always does, gradually floating away. 
" That's my idea of scent," he said, " it's as elusive as that. Now, if that 
coat were damp, you know it would stay there longer; so it would if the 
\\rind didn't blow it off. In England the atmosphere and the condition of 

114 



"^^^S 



4 



\'> 




THOMAS HITCHCOCK, ;R., ESQ., M.F.H. 



MR. HITCHCOCK'S 

the ground are so much more conducive to good scent than with us, that 
English hounds, being used to it, cannot go on unless they can get it — at 
least not fast enough to keep on terms with their fox. They lose too much 
time, and hounds in America have got to keep near a fox in order to kill 
him. I'd like you to see my hounds work and you'd see the difference in 
a minute. We go out with perhaps twenty couples, and they are cast off 
and immediately spread themselves out very wide. They are unruly, I'll 
admit, but they don't babble. Presently a hound, perhaps a quarter of a 
mile away, will speak, then another perhaps backing him up, perhaps far- 
ther away, then another and another until finally they will pack in to the 
foremost and all go on together. Their instinct seems to be to ' get forward' 
all the time. If they lose the line during a run, they are not cast, nor 
do they cast themselves in a body ; they all instantly scatter and again one 
hound is pretty sure to strike the line, and there is no time wasted when he 
does. To put it in a nutshell, the hounds, not the huntsman, hunt the fox." 

The Master of the Middlesex had to admit that if all American packs 
had advanced to this state of efficiency there was very little room for criticism 
from anyone. On the other hand, he told Mr. Hitchcock that, in his opin- 
ion, hounds bred in this country from the best of English blood would, 
within a reasonable time, become adapted to the conditions of atmosphere 
and soil and at the same time possess all the good qualities of the best 
American hounds and, in addition, be more amenable to discipline and 
breed closer to a type. 

" Well," said Mr. Hitchcock, " I'll admit no one has given it a fair trial 
yet, although I'm told that Mr. Mather's hounds are very good in their work. 
I hope you won't be disappointed in the results you obtain, though I fear 
you will." And on this point, the two disputants will probably always differ. 

Mr. Hitchcock has had good luck in breeding and has produced a pack 
which today has few equals. At the time of his first hunting the Aiken 
country there were only gray foxes native to the soil, but he introduced a 
number of red foxes, which have done very well and are now as numerous 
as the grays. The runs would be very hard to describe, owing to the pecu- 
liar conformation of the country, the immense stretches of pine woods 

115 



MR. HITCHCOCK'S 

and the impracticability of earth-stopping; but the red foxes usually give long, 
hard runs before going to ground. The grays, of course, unless they climb 
a tree in the first twenty minutes, are usually quickly killed. 

The landowners are very favorable to hunting, but must be treated with 
the greatest consideration, being freeholders and very independent. Mr. 
Hitchcock finds that thoroughbred horses are best suited to his country and 
uses nothing else. It seems to us quite unnecessary to describe his horses, 
as they are noted throughout the length and breadth of America as being of 
the best, both as to conformation and manners. 



116 



Mr. MADDUX'S Hounds 

MASTER - -James K. Maddux, Esq. 

HUNTSMAN - -.- - The Master 

WHIPPER-IN Frank Helm 

HOUNDS - 1 couples, American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE - - " Leeton Hai," Warrenton. Va. 

DAYS OF MEETING Every hunting day 

LENGTH OF SEASON - ~ October 1st to April 1st 



IN 1 888, Mr. James K. Maddux first began to keep his own hounds, 
having hunted before that time with the various packs which were 
maintained in and about Warrenton; a pack of some sort having 
always been kept there. Toward the end of the 80's so many new settlers 
came in that it seemed likely that support could be secured for two regular 
packs, and the Warrenton Hounds divided the country with the private pack, 
which Mr. Maddux established. 

No stauncher supporter of the American hound breathes than Mr. Mad- 
dux, and it is perhaps needless to say that his hounds are all of that 
variety, and when Mr. Maddux says " American," he means it, his hounds 
not having to his knowledge a single cross of English blood. Just what 
their breeding is it would be difficult to prove, but they are not, as are some 
of the so-called American hounds, three-quarters English. Mr. Maddux 
states that in the country over which he hunts, which is hilly and contains 
large tracts of woodland, and areas where it is quite impossible for the hunts- 
man to be v«th hounds much of the time, the independence and free 
tongues of his hounds enable him to get better sport with them than he can 
with any others. 

The fencing is varied, consisting of stone walls, post-and-rail, " snake " 
and plank fences, but the going is not bad, and in the open parts of the 

117 



MR. MADDUX'S 

country hounds run very fast, requiring a bold, thoroughbred horse to stay 
with them. 

Mr. Maddux's pack is a small one ; some ten couples only being kept in 
the " Leeton Hill " kennels and maintained, of course, by the Master, who 
receives no subscription. He has always hunted the hounds himself and 
for the last eight or ten seasons has gone out on every good hunting day on 
which circumstances permitted. 

The attitude of the landowners about Warrenton is very friendly to fox- 
hunting, and many of them take the field themselves behind Mr. Maddux's 
little pack. 

In 1904, the M. F. H. applied for recognition to the National Steeple- 
chase and Hunt Association, which was promptly granted. The country 
about Warrenton is fast settling up with people who are always on the 
lookout for sport wdth horse and hound, and Fields have increased in number 
since the early days, numbering from twenty to twenty-five on an average, 
while on special occasions many more follow, none of them being keener or 
going better than Mrs. Maddux, the wife of the Master, who hunts not only 
with her husband's pack, but also with the Warrenton " drag." 



118 



Mr. Okies Hounds 

DISTINCTIVE COLLAR _ -Green with orange piping 

MASTER - - - - F. W. Okie. Esq. 

HUNTSMAN - _ The Master 

WHIPPER-IN -James Anderson 

HOUNDS - - -. 1 5 couples. American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE - MarshaU. Va. 

DAYS OF MEETING Six days a week 

LENGTH OF SEASON September 1st to April 1st 

SOME eight miles south-west from Upperville, further up the Pied- 
mont Valley, lies what is, perhaps, the best territory from a hunting 
man's point of view in Fauquier County, Virginia. It is a compara- 
tively undiscovered country ; in fact, it was not until 1 904, when Mr. F. 
W. Okie emigrated to Virginia from the Meadow Brook country, that there 
was any regular hunting. Mr. Okie settled at Marshall and, finding the 
country perfect for the sport, promptly began to keep hounds of his own. 

The foxes throughout Mr. Okie's country are strong and game, and the 
attitude of the landowners entirely favorable. The Master has always been 
a believer in the American foxhounds, and beginning with a few couples, 
he has developed a pack which now numbers fifteen couples and which 
does its work in a thoroughly satisfactory manner. The country, like all 
of the Piedmont Valley, is open, with great rolling grazing lands and small 
coverts, while the fencing is stiff but clean, owing to the stock-raising pur- 
suits of the farmers. 

A strong, clever, thoroughbred horse is what is needed for the country. 
Mr. Okie has a large country estate at Marshall and always welcomes visit- 
ing sportsmen in the most hospitable manner. 

In 1 905, Mr. Okie acted as alternate judge with Mr. James K. Maddux 
in the English-American foxhound match in the Piedmont Valley. 

119 



MR. OKIE'S 

As this volume goes to press, it gives the authors great pleasure to be 
able to state that Mr. Okie has invited the Master of the Middlesex Fox- 
hounds to hunt the country in conjunction with him during the season 
of 1908. 



120 



The Myopia Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Canary 

EVENING DRESS -- - Scarlet coat, canary facings 

MASTER George S. MandeU. Esq. 

SECRETARY - W. H. Seabury, Esq.. Somerset Club, Boston, Mass. 

HUNTSMAN The Master 

WHIPPER-IN - Joe Barrar 

HOUNDS - 20 couples. English 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Hamilton. Mass. 

DAYS OF MEETING Tuesday. Thursday and Saturday 



MORE than a quarter of a century ago, in the year 1 879, a few 
mutually agreeable men were accustomed to meet at Win- 
chester, Massachusetts, to play tennis and enjoy such other 
outdoor sports as might suggest themselves. There they leased a small house 
and formed a nucleus around which the Country Club of Brookline, — which, 
by the way, is the pioneer Country Club in America, — was eventually or- 
ganized. Hounds were suggested by Mr. F. H. Prince, who had hunted in 
England, and in 1 88 1 a draft was brought from Montreal, and hunted by Mr. 
Hugh A. Allan, the first Master. This first organization was called "The 
Myopia Hunt Club," from the fact that most of its members were near- 
sighted and wore spectacles in the field. The pack, which saved the or- 
ganization from losing its identity on the formation of the Country Club, 
continued at Brookline under the Mastership of Mr. Frank Seabury as 
the " Myopia Foxhounds " — a wheel within a wheel, hunting part of the 
season there and part in its present country around Hamilton, Massachusetts. 
In 1 882, kennels were built in Hamilton, where the club first leased, and 
afterward, in 1 89 1 , purchased the Gibney farm, of some hundred or more 
acres. The old farmhouse is still the centre around which the present es- 

121 



THE MYOPIA 

tablishment has been formed, and represents the spirit of the club, which is 
that new ideas should be grafted on the old, — not supplant them. 

At first there were paper-chases as well as fox-hunts ; but in 1 885, 
beagles were presented to the club by Mr. George H. Warren, and the 
drag was first introduced. After 1 889, there was very little fox-hunting, as 
the growing up of the community and the unfitness of the country precluded 
the best of sport. 

The Club's present name — " The Myopia Hunt Club" — assumed on its 
incorporation in 1 89 1 , somewhat belies its scope. In 1 888, polo was intro- 
duced, which puts it among the earliest organizations to take up that sport. 
Interest in polo is still unabated, and the club had the honor of having one 
of its members, Mr. R. L. Agassiz, on the all-American team which visited 
England in 1903. In 1894, golf became popular, and the Myopia links to- 
day, an 18-hole course, stand among the best in the country. In 1902, 
a court tennis buildmg was erected, and this has been well supported; fur- 
nishing a connecting link in the series of sports which is making Myopia a 
winter as well as a summer centre of sport and sociabihty. For all these 
recreations the members find enthusiasm and in them take an equal pride. 
The regular membership of the club is 1 00, with an associate membership 
to meet such requirements as may arise through a changing colony of summer 
residents on the North Shore. 

Of course, all this information about the club is very interesting, but since 
it is as a Hunt Club that we are considering Myopia, the hounds and ken- 
nels are the things of most importance. 

Mr. W. H. Seabury, the secretary of the Hunt, is a brother of Mr. Frank 
Seabury, who acted as Master from 1 883 to 1 892 ; and who, during his 
long Mastership, took such pains to get the landowners interested in the hunt- 
ing that it has been little trouble for the Masters who have followed him to 
hunt over a country which is made up for the most part of small holdings. 
The New England farmer is at heart usually a most good-natured individual, 
but he has rather a horror of any innovation, particularly if it has to do with 
his ancestral foe. There are some men who, till they understand hunting, are 
absolutely inimical to the sport. Fox-hunting, as they know it, consists in 

122 



THE MYOPIA 

going out with one or two slow-running hounds which drive the fox before 
them at a leisurely pace, while the hunter stands at some chosen spot and 
shoots the quarry as he goes by. The spectacle of a number of mounted 
men dressed in scarlet coats, following a pack of hounds which are running 
on an artificial trail, and going out of their way to jump fences, is a source of 
derision and of annoyance to them. 

Riding to hounds was practically unknown in New England when Mr. 
Seabury first took the Myopia ; and it was in a great degree through his 
friendliness with and unending courtesy to the farmers that the sport has 
been carried on at all in New England. The three hunts of eastern 
Massachusetts, the Myopia, the Norfolk and the Middlesex, owe a great 
debt to Mr. Seabury for this — perhaps more than the younger members 
realize. 

In 1 883, the first draft of hounds came from England from the Warwick- 
shire, which was then under the Mastership of the late Lord Willoughby 
de Broke, and with this as a basis, Mr. Seabury managed to breed a very 
fair pack. In 1 889, another draft came over from England, sent by Mr. 
George H. Warren, again from the Warwickshire. From 1882 to 1 889 Mr. 
Seabury used his foxhounds purely to hunt foxes ; using the beagles for the 
drag-hunting. He hunted the hounds himself, with John Crosby as first and 
William Crosby as second whipper-in, and one of the authors well remem- 
bers going, as a small boy, to see the hounds — which were exceedingly well 
turned out and had a large following of "pinks" — draw the Chebacco 
Wood. Of the sport at that time Mr. Seabury says : 

" We hunted foxes two and sometimes three days a week, but the coun- 
try was so rough, as you know, that the foxes were able to get away most 
of the time. In fact, we only killed one, but we had many a good run and 
a lot of sport out of it, the pack at the time consisting of about twenty 
couples." 

After 1889, the fox-hunting was practically abandoned, although the 
hounds went out for foxes occasionally until 1 898. Mr. Seabury carried 
the horn until 1 893, when he retired, much to the sorrow of everybody, the 
Mastership being taken by Mr. R. M. Appleton until the Spanish War 

123 



THE MYOPIA 

called him away during the season of 1 898. His place was filled by Mr. 
T. G. Frothingham for a season, until Mr. Appleton returned and again took 
up the reins of government, resigning in 1900, when the present Master, 
Mr. George S. Mandell, was elected in his place. Fox-hunting had ceased, 
the reasons for this being evident from Mr. Mandell's own remarks, which 
follow : 

" The country is such as might be expected when chosen from a New 
England landscape. It lies in Essex County about a forty-minute train 
ride from Boston, principally in the towns of Wenham, Hamilton, Ipsv^ch, 
Rowley and Topsfield, wath a few of the choicest runs in West Newbury, 
Newburyport, and even across the New Hampshire line. To make this 
latter available, it is necessary for the hounds and horses to lie out over 
night, usually the night before the meets. 

It is a land of small holdings; and by actual estimate, the Club enjoys its 
sport through the courtesy of not less than five hundred farmers. The 
problem is to tie together the odd bits of reclaimed land and old pastures 
into a continuous gallop. Added to its natural rockiness, it suffers from salt 
marshes, while directly through its centre runs a river hedged by the exten- 
sive Wenham Swamp. There is also much impenetrable woodland, while 
scarcely a field is without wire. 

" These conditions preclude many of the niceties of hunting. To take 
one's ovsm line would be extremely hazardous. Fences are usually stone 
walls, generally of small size, but occurring higher and more strongly built 
with sufficient frequency to demand a good jumper. Wire is combated 
with the usual panels of stout fencing. The jumps are noted for their trap- 
piness rather than their height, and require an intelligent, rather than a big 
jumper, and consequently the horses are highly bred with a very considera- 
ble proportion of pure blood. In class they have steadily improved each 
year." 

Consequently, Mr. Mandell, claiming the requirements of a draghound 
to be materially different from those of a hound engaged in the pursuit of 
the fox, bred along lines which he conceded were unorthodox, but which 
he believed would give him better results, with the material he had at hand 

124 



THE MYOPIA 

and the time he could afford to give to it, than if he had followed more 
accepted Imes. 

Speed and dash are the principal requisites for a hound at Myopia. 
The nature of the country makes it practically obligatory to ride directly be- 
hind hounds, and if they do not possess sufficient speed to keep out of the 
way of a hard-riding, well-mounted Field they are useless. In so cramped 
a country any crowding at the fences, when perhaps there is only a single 
narrow panel which is fit to jump, is not only disagreeable but positively 
dangerous. 

Breeding from nothing but pure Elnglish stock, but taking great pains in 
the selection of his sires, the Master had in his kennels, at the close of the 
season of 1 907, a pack of big, racy hounds, possessed of great speed, which 
flew the stone walls where smaller hounds would have climbed them. As 
luck would have it, just as he had about reached his ideal, and the pack, 
bred solely by him, certainly had no equals in America as draghounds, 
rabies broke out in the kennels, and the entire pack had to be destroyed. 
Mr. Mandell, good sportsman that he is, promptly imported a new draft 
from England to fill the gap for the time being, until he can again breed 
what his country needs. 

The regular season opens on Labor Day, and continues until frost, usually 
about the 1 st of December. The hounds meet three times a week. Lat- 
terly there have been informal meets in August, and even in July, known as 
" pony drags." 

The farmers have met the sport in a most generous way, and there is 
practically no spot which may be reasonably ridden over where hounds are 
not welcome. At the conclusion of the run men are inunediately sent over 
the line to replace wire and repair damages. 

The Field turn out on the average about twenty strong, though fifty or 
more persons ride during the season, with considerable regularity. There 
are a number of women among the riders, as many as eight frequently 
riding at the same time. The difficulty of recruiting the Field and giving 
opportunity for developing green horses is greater in drag-hunting than in fox- 
hunting. A successful drag is necessarily a burst from start to finish. There 

125 



THE MYOPIA 

are not the opportunities to school while the hounds are drawing, or as the 
pack " come to their noses." An innovation which proved a great success 
in this line were the meets of Mr. John Caswell's beagle pack before the 
season opened. Mr. Caswell has now, unfortunately, been compelled to 
abandon these meets, the "pony-drags" already referred to taking their place. 
There is no doubt of the popularity of these junior meets. The beagles 
are replaced by a pack of the old hounds, troubled with the " slows " and 
further kept back by a scent laid with many checks. 

There is no better experience for the novice than to ride with the man 
who lays the drag. There are also opportunities of learning while the 
hounds are being conditioned; and any novice who needs more than oppor- 
tunity is not sufficiently good material to be worth while bothering about. 

The above will give to the reader an idea of the pains taken at Myopia 
to let the youngsters join in the sport and to instil in them a love for cross- 
country riding. One can see at the early morning meets of the pony drags 
many a future hunting man and woman who bears a name which was 
among those of the originzJ Myopia members who hunted foxes at Win- 
chester in 1 879. 



126 




HENRY G. VAUGHAN, ESQ., M.F.H. 19OJ- 
Krum :i Painting hy Charles Hopklnson, Esq. 



The Norfolk Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Ught green 

EVENING DRESS - - Scarlet coat, light green facings 

MASTER - Henry G. Vaughan, Esq. 

SECRETARY - Robert Homans, Esq., Boston, Mass. 

HUNTSMAN - The Master 

WHIPPERS-IN \ \'\^^T, "^.'w ?r 

( 2nd, Nicholas Walsh 

KENNEL HUNTSMAN Andrew McGregor 

HOUNDS - \ ^^ couples. English 

( 8 couples, American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE - ■ Medfield, Mass. 

DAYS OF MEETING - Tuesday. Thursday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON September 1st to December 15th 



HUNTING at Myopia had been going on for more than fifteen 
years when, in 1 895, a number of gentlemen formed themselves 
into an association known as the Norfolk Hunt, and elected 
Mr. Joseph Balch to the Mastership. As all these gentlemen were mem- 
bers of the Dedham Polo Club, the newly formed Hunt at first made its 
headquarters there ; the Master finding good open country over which to lay 
his drag. In those days there was no fox-hunting at Norfolk and there were 
only about half a dozen followers in the Field. 

The first draft of hounds was bought at the Rugby sale in England, and 
these were later recruited by some good drafts from the Montreal. The 
Hunt throve and prospered like the proverbial green bay tree, and the Fields 
grew in size in the four years during which Mr. Balch ruled over the pack, 
and then, business duties taking too much of his time, he reluctantly resigned. 
Captain Samuel D. Parker, commanding Light Battery "A," of the Mas- 

127 



THE NORFOLK 

sachusetts Volunteer Militia, was elected as his successor, and for a time 
hunted over much the same territory. As the Fields grew in number, how- 
ever, various members began to settle at Westwood, a little village some 
few miles west of Dedham, and in 1900 the number of riders had in- 
creased so much, and the country had become so restricted, that the hounds 
and horses were moved during the hunting season to temporary quarters in 
Medfleld, where some of the members hired a house for the season, while 
others stayed at the Inn. This proved such a successful experiment that in 
1901 a property of over one hundred acres, on the line between Medfield 
and Dover, was bought, and a clubhouse with sleeping accommodations for 
about forty members, good kennels, and stable facilities for over sixty horses 
were built. So it was that six years after the Hunt had been organized it 
was duly incorporated, and Mr. Francis Peabody, Jr., who had long hunted 
with the Myopia at Hamilton, was elected President of the new organiza- 
tion, known from that time as the Norfolk Hunt Club, Captain Parker con- 
tinuing in the capacity of M. F. H. until 1 903. 

While Mr. Balch was Master, no attempt was made to do anything but 
hunt the drag; but Captain Parker was more ambitious, and in 1899, en- 
couraged by the enthusiastic support of a number of lovers of fox-hunting, 
he took the pack dowm to Cape Cod and hunted the wild fox along the 
sand dunes of the coast, after the ground in Norfolk County had frozen too 
hard to admit of hunting about Medfield. 

From an indifferent lot of hounds Captain Parker set to work to produce 
a pack which could also be used for the better sport of fox-hunting, and 
with this end in view, Andrew McGregor, a Scotchman of considerable 
experience, was employed as huntsman in 1 899, and is still in the employ 
of the Club. He and Captain Parker, working together, improved the 
hounds very much, breeding a good many, and getting yearly drafts from 
the Montreal, but at the close of the season of 1 902, Captain Parker re- 
signed his office — having found that it took too much of his time — his 
resignation causing great regret among the members of the Hunt, who ap- 
preciated his untiring efforts to improve the pack and the country. 

Mr. Henry G. Vaughan, the present Master, was elected in his stead, 

128 




HUNT STAFF AND HOUNDS 




A. MCGREGOR, 1ST WUIPPER-IN AND KENNEL HUNTSMAN 



THE NORFOLK 

and although he was comparatively new at the game, his Mastership has 
been a most successful one. Like his predecessor, he hunts the hounds him- 
self, and although a busy man, finds time to be on hand three days a week, 
and sometimes four. Although not a hound man to begin with, Mr. 
Vaughan has taken infinite pains to better his pack, it has steadily im- 
proved under him, and some very good hounds have been bred, in 1904 
and 1 905 he had drafts from the Cheshire, and these, together with occa- 
sional drafts from the Genesee Valley and the Montreal, have brought the 
pack to a high level of excellence. In 1905, Mr. Vaughan showed five 
couples of hounds at the Country Club Horse Show and won, competing 
against the best packs in New England and, although the hounds have not 
been seen much of late on the flags, except at the National Hound Show, 
the pack is of a much higher quality than when Mr. Vaughan took hold of 
it. The Master, who holds the office of Secretary of the Masters of Fox- 
hounds Association of America, has taken great interest in the South Lin- 
coln Show and the Norfolk entries have carried off some very good trophies, 
notably the Champion Bitch Cup won in 1 906 by " Woodnote." 

McGregor, the huntsman, has a strong liking for American hounds and has 
managed to interest the Master in them to a considerable extent. " Vanquish," 
a bitch bred by Mr. Vaughan at the Norfolk kennels, is by the Cheshire 
"Dashwood" out of a half-bred American bitch, and has won the title of 
"Champion" at the various shows at which she has appeared in American 
foxhound classes. This fact is mentioned by the authors to show how lax 
is the standard for American hounds on the flags today. Be this as it may, 
Mr. Vaughan's expenments m the crossmg of English and American hounds 
will doubtless prove of great interest and assistance to New England hound 
men in general, and it is to be hoped that a near day may see the Norfolk 
devoting more of its time to fox-hunting. The Cape Cod season, now last- 
ing but two weeks, has become an annual feature, and the taste it gives the 
members of the better sport will do much to whet their appetites. 

Mr. Vaughan himself has some doubts as to whether this will ever oc- 
cur, for, although many of the members find time each year to go to the 
Cape for a couple of weeks' hunting, the home country is so infested with 

129 



THE NORFOLK 

wire that fox-hunting there would be very difficult, owing to the fact that 
hounds would probably get away from huntsman and Field with astonishing 
regularity. 

The clubhouse, which is in the township of Medfield, is most advanta- 
geously placed in the middle of the country, and the latter has been very 
greatly extended under Mr. Vaughan's Mastership. It lies for the most part 
about Dover, Medfield, Millis, and the towns to the westward of them, 
although once a year runs are laid in Framingham, on the edge of Middlesex 
County, in the country ruled over by Messrs. Bowditch and Perkins. Thus 
the Framingham country may be said to be a sort of neutral ground be- 
tween the Norfolk and the Middlesex, the latter Hunt sometimes hunting 
the same country, by invitation of its joint Masters. 

The accompanying photograph gives a very good idea of the kind of 
fencing to be met with in a day with Norfolk, and for the trappy stone walls 
and narrow lanes it has been found that a half-bred horse is best suited. 

Norfolk can probably boast the largest Fields that follow a drag in 
America, it being no uncommon sight to see from forty to fifty out on a 
good day; in fact of late years the cramped nature of the country has made 
it necessary to put a limit on the club membership. 



130 



The Oak Ridge Hunt Club 

DISTINCTIVE COLLAR - - _ _ Seal brown 

EVENING DRESS -.- - Scarlet coat, seal brown facings 

MASTER - - - J. M. B. Lewis. Esq. 

SECRETARY - _ H. D. WeUs, Esq., Lynchburg, Va. 

HUNTSMAN - - Ed Cash 

HON. WHIPPERS-IN - \ \^\^^,^- ^^*'''^"' ^- 

( Znd, William Beasley, Esq. 

HOUNDS - - - - 1 8 couples, American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Lynchburg, Va. 

DAYS OF MEETING - \ ^°^°^^^' every hunting day 

( Draghounds, Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON October 1st to May 1st 



ABOUT the year 1887. the Messrs. E. C. Hamner, Chas. M. 
Guggenheimer, Hon. Peter J. Otey. Dr. R. W. Morgan, Chas. 
E. Heald, N. C. Manson and Maj. Marcellus Moorman, who 
had been hunting about Lynchburg, Virginia, with the various packs of 
hounds in that region, joined forces and organized under the name of the Oak 
Ridge Hunt Club. Electing Dr. R. W. Morgan as M. F. H., they began 
to hunt foxes on regular days, and the farmers, quick to appreciate the advan- 
tages of having their country hunted by an organized Hunt, rather than by 
several individuals, met the wishes of the members in every possible way, 
allowing them the hunting privileges of their farms and even giving them the 
most pressing invitations to come frequently. This spirit, which has always 
been manifest, is a tremendous advantage to the Hunt, and since both red 
and gray foxes are very numerous and a source of constant annoyance and 
pecuniary loss to the farmers, the members of the Oak Ridge Hunt endeav- 
or both by their zeal in hunting and by recognizing their obligations in the 

131 



THE OAK RIDGE 

matter of crops, seeded land, etc., to repay the landowners for their liberal- 
ity to the sport and to retain their good will. 

The foxhounds go out every day on which hunting is possible during the 
season, which lasts from late September until March, and account for many 
foxes, a majority of which are of the short-running gray variety, although the 
red foxes of this section of Virginia, so noted for their stoutness and game- 
ness, will often stand up in front of hounds for several hours, occasionally 
making from eight to twelve mile points. Earth-stopping, — as anyone who 
knows Virginia must realize, — is difficult of accomplishment in a country 
where foxes breed chiefly in rocky bluffs and ravines. Were this not the 
case, many more of the red foxes would be killed above ground by the ex- 
cellent working pack of the Oak Ridge. 

The country hunted by them is a fine sporting one and very large in ex- 
tent, comprising the counties of Amherst, Campbell, and parts of Bedford 
and Appomattox, in each of which there is some very fine rolling, open 
country with steep bluffs and heavy growths of ivy and laurel. Some of 
the best coverts are practically unrideable, owing to the wild-grape vines and 
wire, although the latter has not yet become, in itself, a serious obstacle to 
sport. 

Under the able Mastership of Dr. Morgan, who ruled over the country 
for eleven seasons to the universal satisfaction of both farmers and Field, the 
pack steadily improved, and when he resigned in the autumn of 1899, the 
present Master, Mr. J. M. B. Lewds, who was elected to succeed him, found 
a first-rate lot of hounds in the kennels. A drag pack is also maintained by 
the Oak Ridge, meeting on Saturdays for those of the members who can 
only spare time for a weekly gallop. 

As is prevalent with Virginia packs, the first hounds used were drafts 
from private kennels and, m the case of the Oak Ridge, were obtained from 
Mr. Thomas Hubbard of Campbell County and Mr. Thomas Cardwell of 
Appomattox County. Selecting the best of these, Dr. Morgan bred his pack 
with great care, and later resorted to an mfusion of the blood of the Loving 
hounds from Amherst County, which carried in their veins a strong strain of 
good English blood. He also added, toward the end of his Mastership, a 

132 




J. M. B. LEWIS, ESQ., M.I'.H. 



THE OAK RIDGE 

draft from the noted Walker pack of Kentucky, and in 1 898 obtained from 
the private pack of Dr. Burke of Danville, Kentucky, a stallion hound which 
he used extensively and which has left a strong impression. 

When the present Master assumed the reins of office, he continued the 
policies of his predecessor, and in the year 1 900, brought in a stallion 
hound of rare merit from the pack of Mr. D. S. Lewis, of Harrisonburg, 
Virginia, which has very markedly improved the working qualities and 
levelness of the Oak Ridge hounds ; so that at the present time no hounds 
in Virginia show better wild fox-hunting than is enjoyed by the Master and 
Field of this sporting little Hunt. 

While the cramped nature of some of the country is best negotiated by a 
quiet three-quarter-bred horse, yet the Master and a number of his Field 
prefer and always ride clean-breds, as the days are long and the pace is 
often very severe. 

Although the Oak Ridge country has not, hitherto, been so well known 
as other portions of the great fox-hunting state of Virginia, and it was not 
until the season of 1908 that the Hunt applied for recognition by the 
National Steeplechase and Hunt Association, yet visiting sportsmen have al- 
ways been shown a high class of sport and a cordial welcome by the mem- 
bers of the Oak Ridge Hunt. 



133 



The Onwentsia Hunt 



EVENING DRESS - - ~ Scarlet coat, yellow facings 

MASTER - - - James F. Lord, Esq. 

SECRETARY -- - - Francis C. Farwell, Esq., Lake Forest. 111. 

HUNTSMAN - - - Arthur Paley 



WHIPPERS-IN- 



I st, Jim NichoUs 
2nd, Will Naughton 



HOUNDS - 1 6 couples, English 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE - Lake Forest. 111. 

DAYS OF MEETING Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON - - \ September 1st to December 1st 

( and April I st to June I st. 



TWENTY-EIGHT miles north of the city of Chicago is located 
a colony of business men who, in addition to the sports usually 
indulged in, in such communities, have endeavored to establish 
that of cross-country riding. In the autumn of 1 90 1 , a paper-chase club 
was organized, and this proving very popular, the next step, naturally, was 
the establishment of a pack of hounds. Being novices at the game, and not 
wishing to begin on too pretentious a scale, Mr. Arthur T. Aldis, who had 
been elected Master, looked about to see what sort of hounds would be 
most advantageous to follow in what seemed a most unpromising country. 
Hunting men from the older communities of the east and south must bear 
in mind that the western farmer would surely go into bankruptcy were he 
to fence his farm in a similar manner to his brother in the east. Wood is 
at a premium, and far too valuable to use for rail fences; and wire, the 
hunting man's curse, is the only substitute. Its use about Lake Forest has 
ruined an otherwise beautiful country and put fox-hunting quite out of the 
question. 

134 




JAMES F. LOKD, ESQ., M.F.H. 



THE ONWENTSIA 

Starting with these disadvantages, but backed by liberal subscriptions 
and an endless amount of enthusiasm, Mr. Aldis bought eight couples of 
English foxhounds from the Chevy Chase, of which Mr. Clarence Moore 
was M. F. H., — in April of 1 902. Mr. Moore took sufficient interest in 
the formation of the Hunt to send out with this draft his huntsman, Robert 
Curran, who proved very useful in showing the first huntsman of the On- 
wentsia some of the tricks of his trade. A little later, hearing that the Mid- 
dlesex Hunt was about to dispose of a pack of beagles, which had been 
ridden after for some years and were admittedly the fastest of their kind in 
America, Mr. Aldis also purchased a draft of them, but they never proved 
very popular and were later disposed of. 

The next thing to do was to get the country into sufficiently good shape 
to ride over, and this was accomplished by obtaining permission from the 
farmers to build panels of timber from forty to fifty yards wide in the ware 
fences. The rideable area was thus steadily expanded under Mr. Aldis's 
energetic rule and the Fields increased both in numbers and experience. 

In 1903, a draft was procured from the Montreal Hunt and in the fol- 
lowing autumn these were augmented by more hounds from the Green 
Spring Valley, which were hunted with the others with the idea that they 
would improve the music of the pack. This they did, but were found to 
be uncontrollable and were promptly dreifted. 

On December 1 st, 1 903, Mr. W. Vernon Booth succeeded Mr. Aldis 
as Master, and continued to carry out the work begun by his predecessor, 
his first step being to get more hounds from the Montreal and the Middle- 
sex. He also engaged, as huntsman, Arthur Paley, who had been first 
whipper-in to the Middlesex draghounds, and wath the latter's experienced 
assistance improved the pack in pace and uniformity and increased the ride- 
able area, until his country now extends twelve miles south, nine miles west 
and six miles north from the kennels, which are on the borders of the lake. 
Drafts have been acquired from year to year from various eastern packs, 
perhaps the most important being the acquisition of a large draft from the 
London (Ontario) hounds in 1 905. The country being chiefly grass, and 
the fences mainly built of saplings, and therefore unbreakable, a clean, clever 

135 



THE ONWENTSIA 

jumper is needed. Two lines, aggregating from six to nine miles, are usually 
laid, and as the hounds go a fast pace over this open country, with no stone 
walls to stop them, a thoroughbred or nearly thoroughbred hunter is re- 
quired. There are plenty of foxes in the country, but so far it has seemed 
to the Master impossible to get good sport after them, on account of the 
prevalence of wire. 

Each year, in July, the Club holds its annual Horse Show, and the steady 
increase in numbers and quality of the entries in the hunter classes shows 
that the westerners are in the game to stay. Most of the members have 
summer homes near the kennels, and there is a good hotel which, with the 
clubhouse, affords ample means for taking good care of any visitors who may 
turn up to try a day wdth the Onwentsia hounds. 

As this volume goes to press, word is received that Mr. James F. Lord 
has been elected Master; taking the place so ably filled for a number of 
years by Mr. W. Vernon Booth. 



136 



The Orange County Hunt 

EVENING DRESS _ - _ _ Scarlet coat, white coUar 

MASTER _ John R. Townsend, Esq. 

SECRETARY - - Irving G. Taylor. Esq.. The Plains. Va. 

HON. HUNTSMAN _ WiUiam Skinker, Jr., Esq. 

{] St, Ernest Withers 
2nd, Charles Glasscock 
3rd, Byron Whittlesey 

HOUNDS - ? ^^ couples, American 

(27 couples, English 

KENNELS - - - - Goshen, N. Y.. and The Plains, Va. 

DAYS OF MEETING - Monday, Wednesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON - - August 25th to March 25th 

IN the spring of 1 900, four New York gentlemen, Messrs. Edward H. 
Harriman, F. Gray Griswold, John R. Townsend and Dr. J. O. 
Green, conceived the idea of keeping a pack of draghounds somewhere 
in Orange County, New York, and fixed upon the town of Goshen as the 
most suitable place for their kennels. 

At that time, owning no hounds, and having only a sufficient number of 
horses to mount themselves, Mr. P. F. Collier, who was then hunting his 
own pack in Monmouth County, near Eatontown, New Jersey, was appealed 
to, and kindly loaned ten couples of hounds, a huntsman, a whipper-in, a 
kennelman and six horses on which to mount the Hunt Staff; — thus ena- 
bling the Orange County Hunt to become a reality. Hunting was begun 
early the following autumn, and such good sport resulted that it was decided 
to empower Mr. Griswold to buy, on his next trip to England, twenty-five 
couples of hounds. He was successful in procuring a draft of high quaUty, 
and in the spring of 1 90 1 they arrived at the kennels in Goshen, N. Y. 
The management of the Hunt was entrusted to a committee, with Mr. Gris- 
wold, who had formerly acted in the capacity of Master to the Queen's 

137 



THE ORANGE COUNTY 

County and Meadow Brook hounds, carrying the horn. The following 
season the hounds were again in charge of a committee, with Mr. E. S. 
Craven ably filling Mr. Griswold's position; the latter having resigned. 

Such good sport was enjoyed during these seasons that the originators 
felt that the time had come to expand, and if possible, to devote much of 
the season to the better sport of fox-hunting. With this object in view, 
the Hunt was re-organized and put on a financial basis which enabled it to 
procure suitable winter quarters in the south, where the season was longer 
and the country more suited to the purpose. 

In 1 903, then, Mr. John R. Townsend was elected M. F. H., and im- 
mediately turned his attention to developing the southern country. Excel- 
lent kennels and extensive stabling were located at the Plains, Fauquier 
County, Virginia, while a pleasant clubhouse was built for the accommoda- 
tion of the members. A number of men from northern Hunts whose lo- 
cation did not allow them to do any winter hunting, joined the Orange 
County, and enjoyed the sport so much that the Fields have steadily grovra. 
Mr. Townsend, whose heart and soul is in the sport, has spent a great deal 
of time experimenting on the best type of hound for the country ; in fact it 
was he who offered the cup which was the trophy competed for in 1 905, 
when the Middlesex and Grafton hounds held their memorable match in a 
section of the Piedmont Hunt country. The former pack made its head- 
quarters at Middleburg, some ten miles north of the Orange County kennels 
at the Plains, and the next season, Mr. Townsend, finding that the country 
about the Plains was insufficient for his operations, aided in forming what 
is known as the Middleburg Hunt, which is nothing more nor less than an 
offshoot of the Orange County. Mr. Percy Evans was elected M. F. H. 
of the new Hunt, which has a long list of the landowners about Middleburg 
on its roll of members, but it is impossible to give the history of the Orange 
County Hunt without bringing in this offshoot. 

The country hunted by the Orange County pack, proper, differs some- 
what in character from the Middleburg country already described, in that 
the fencing is bigger and less negotiable, much of it being practically unjump- 
able because of the sunken roads which intersect some portions. 

136 



THE ORANGE COUNTY 

Foxes found in the Plains country often run toward Middleburg, and so 
it happens that the two packs frequently meet when hunting on the same 
day. A great portion is grazing land and there is little opposition to the 
hunting on the part of the farmers, except in the early autumn, when damage 
Is caused to the wheat fields by hounds as well as horses. Foxes were not 
so plentiful about the Plains as at Middleburg, but a great many have been 
turned out and they are on the increase. 

Mr. Townsend has now given up keeping English hounds for anything 
but the drag-hunting, which still continues in the north, the season opening 
at Goshen about August 25th and continuing until November 1 st, when the 
pack goes into winter quarters and the members betake themselves to the 
Plains to hunt foxes behind the half-bred hounds, some of which were pro- 
cured from Mr. Harry W. Smith, Master of the Grafton. It will be seen 
that the Orange County Hunt practically maintains three packs : — the 
English pack at Goshen, New York, an American pack at the Plains; 
and a third pack of English and American mixed. The American pack is 
hunted by Mr. William Skinker, Jr., while Claude Hatcher, at Middleburg, 
has shown excellent sport with the mixed pack, as will be seen from a glance 
at the chapter on the latter Hunt. 



139 



The Patapsco Hunt 

DISTINCTIVE UNIFORM - Black coat. Hunt buttons 

EVENING DRESS - - Scarlet coat, robin's egg-blue facings 

MASTER - - - Dorsey M. Williams, Esq. 

SECRETARY- Rowland C. West, Esq., Baltimore Club, Baltimore, Md. 

HUNTSMAN - Joseph Harmon 

HON. WHIPPERS-IN - \ I'\ ^;,^°«fl Y.f'^'- f "^• 

( 2nd, W. J. H. Watters, Esq. 

HOUNDS - 20 couples, American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Washington Road, Elkridge, Md. 

DAYS OF MEETING \ Wednesday and Saturday. Bye- 

( days Monday and 1 hursday 

LENGTH OF SEASON - — September I st to April 1st 



DURING the month of September, 1 898, the Overbrook Farm, 
situated in Howard County, Maryland, was purchased by a 
little band of sportsmen, prominent among whom were the 
Messrs. Murray and Grosvenor Hanson, Edward and Morris Murray, 
Henry J. Bowdoin, Gustav T. Dalcour, Dorsey M. Williams and William 
R. Eareckson, who had joined forces in order to put fox-hunting in Howard 
County on a more permanent footing. 

Some of these gentlemen had maintained small packs of foxhounds of 
their own; one of them, Mr. Murray Hanson, having been one of the 
early Masters of the Elkridge Hunt, and all were keen, enthusiastic sports- 
men. Nearly all of them owned hounds which they contributed to the pack 
of the new organization, and the latter presently absorbed the Catonsville 
Hunt, annexing their hounds and thus enabling the Patapsco to take the field 
with a goodly pack for its initial season. 

Organized fox-hunting became very popular, and the Hunt throve and 

140 



THE PATAPSCO 

grew in size until, in 1 900, their present property, situated on the Washing- 
ton Road, some two miles out of the town of Elkridge, was secured. During 
the past eight years, the growth has been gradual but steady, and now there 
is a comfortable clubhouse. Hunt stabling for fourteen horses, a cottage for 
the kennel huntsman and excellent kennels, where the twenty couples of 
American hounds of which the pack consists are lodged. 

Mr. Dorsey M. Williams was elected M. F. H. on the organization of 
the Hunt and has held that office ever since. Being a large landowner and 
farmer himself, the Master is in close sympathy and touch with the land- 
owners of the county, and the result is that there is not a farm on which 
hounds are not welcome during the hunting season. Like many other Hunts 
in the south, the Patapsco enjoys the great advantage of being situated in a 
country where the inhabitants have been fox-hunters since early colonial 
days. Hence it is not strange that many of the farmers should belong to 
the Hunt and attend the meets in the neighborhood whenever they can spare 
time and a mount. 

The Master is thus relieved from the necessity of educating them, as 
many of his northern confreres are obliged to do, and is assisted in the pres- 
ervation of the foxes themselves ; a distinct advantage in two important es- 
sentials to the sport. It follows that foxes are plentiful, and the Patapsco 
hounds have few blank days. 

The country is what is usually known as rolling, and although along the 
Patapsco River the going is pretty rough, most of it is over a good, grazing 
country. The coverts are large as a rule, but usually intersected by numer- 
ous rides, so that when a fox breaks, one is enabled to reach the open 
quickly. The mid-county farmers engage largely in cattle-grazing, and in 
consequence the fencing, — which is of every known variety, except stone 
walls, — is strong and high and requires a good bit of doing. A story is told 
by one of the Patapsco men, that a stranger coming into the country to 
hunt once was heard to remark after a day's sport, that the farmers of 
Howard County must " build their fences to stop eagles ! " 

The lower part of the county has a sandy soil and affords good going in 
mid-vsanter, when all other portions of the country are frozen solid; but the 

141 



THE PATAPSCO 

hunting there is not so interesting as in the mid-county, since the land- 
owners — who raise no stock, but use their land entirely for truck farming — 
build very little fencing. 

As Howard County embraces every possible type of hunting country, it 
is hard to specify any particular type of horse which is best suited to it. 
Many of the Field ride half-breds, and in the trappy portions of the country 
where the enclosures are cramped, they seem to have a little the better of 
it. There is, however, a large contingent of "lirst-flighters" who vsall ride 
nothing but thoroughbreds, and when a strong mid-county fox gives the 
pack a good burst over the grass with its clean timber fences, they are sure 
to be in the lead. 

And now a word as to the hounds. To quote from Major Wadsworth's 
"Bible"; — "A Master is supposed, by courtesy, to know more about his 
own hounds than outsiders;" — Mr. Williams has been too busy to tell us of 
his hounds, but the Hunt Secretary, Mr. Rowland C. West, has been kind 
enough to do so, and as his remarks are far more interesting than anything 
which the authors of this volume could wnrite, they are given in full, as 
follows: 

" The original pack owned by the Club was formed from hounds picked 
up in small lots all over the county. Nearly all the gentlemen who organized 
the Club owned hounds before it was formed, and turned them over to the 
general pack after the kennels on Overbrook Farm were built. 

" From the Catonsville Hunt we acquired seven and a half couples, among 
them a bitch called ' Beulah,' bred by Mr. Hardy of Howard County, and 
given by him to Mr. Hanson, the M. F. H. of the Catonsville Hunt. Mr. 
Hardy claimed that this bitch was descended directly from the famous old 
July strain, and she has certainly proved that she is ' bred in the purple.' 
Being a two-season hunter when she came to us in 1 898, she has hunted 
through every season up to that of 1 906-7, and although bred every year 
since reaching the age of five, has never, so far as I can find out, whelped a 
bad puppy. Old grandma 'Beulah' can be depended on to produce a litter 
every spring, all of whom are good enough to put on in the next year's entry. 

" We cannot be said to have had really good success in breeding, yet we 

142 



THE PATAPSCO 

were very fortunate in 1 907 and shall have about eleven couples of puppies 
come in from w^alk for our annual Puppy Shovs^ in June of this year ( 1 908). 
In 1 906, we had no luck at all, for during November distemper broke out 
in the kennels and we lost all our best hounds, reducing our pack from twenty- 
five couples to six and a half couples, so that, had it not been for the sports- 
manlike assistance of Mr. Redmond C. Stewart, M. F. H. of the Green 
Spring Valley Hunt, who kindly came to our rescue with the loan of four- 
teen couples from his pack, we should have been in a bad way. These 
hounds were returned at the close of the season, except one couple which 
Mr. Stewart sold to us. In 1 905, we bred twelve bitches and lost every 
puppy whelped, while both the G. S. V. and the EJkridge Hunts had the 
same luck. 

" The pack we lost was the levelest we have ever had, being almost all 
marked alike, with black saddles, tan heads, white throats and tips to their 
stems and all big, strong, upstanding hounds and as fast as lightning. It wall 
be some time before we can produce their equals, but have great hopes for 
the young entry of 1 908." 



143 



The Piedmont Hunt 

DISTINCTIVE UNIFORM - -Steel gray coat, black velvet collar 

EVENING DRESS - — ~ Steel gray coat, black collar 

MASTER -- - - -- - R. Hunter Dulany, Esq. 

HUNTSMAN - - - - Claude Hatcher 

HOI INDS ^ ' ^ couples, English and 

( Americain, hunted together 

KENNELS - " Grafton Hall," Upperville, Va. 

POST-OFFICE Upperville, Va. 

DAYS OF MEETING Wednesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON October 1st to April 1st 

LOUDOUN and Fauquier Counties, Virginia, which include 
pretty much all the territory bordered on one side by the Blue 
Ridge Mountains, on another by the Potomac River, on a third 
by the Bull Run Mountains, and on the fourth by Albemarle County, com- 
prise what is the best natural fox-hunting territory in the United States to- 
day. In this area, at present, there are four Hunts which are recognized by 
the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association — the Loudoun County, 
the Orange County, the Middleburg, and the Piedmont. Of these four the 
Piedmont is the oldest by many years ; having sprung from a private 
pack owned and maintained by the late Col. Richard Hunter Dulany of 
"Wellboume," who may be aptly called the father of fox-hunting in the 
Piedmont Valley. Colonel Dulany, who died in 1906, had kept hounds 
since 1870, and toward the end of his life, being too old to undertake 
their active management, relinquished the Mastership to his son, R. Hunter 
Dulany, Esq., of "Grafton Hall," although it was always to the old Col- 
onel that the landowners came to pay their respects at the beginning of the 
season. 

In 1905, Mr. Harry W. Smith of Worcester, Mass., M. F. H. of 

144 




COLONEL RICHARD HUNTER DULANY, LATE MASTER 



THE PIEDMONT 

the Grafton Hounds, who had done a good deal of hunting with Mr. 
Dulany in Virginia, was elected Master, a position which he held for 
only five months, when the title again reverted to the Dulany family. It 
was during this period that the English-American foxhound match was 
held, and at that time the Piedmont country was hunted by the Grafton 
Hounds. In the following season, Mr. Dulany, not caring to continue the 
active Mastership, owing to his father's death, Mr. John R. Townsend, 
M. F. H. of the Orange County, who at that time was hunting the Middle- 
burg country, as well as his own at the Plains, Va., applied for the privilege 
of hunting the country jointly with Mr. Dulany and, his application being 
granted, he did so during the seasons of 1 906 and 1 907. At the present 
time the Piedmont hounds are at " Grafton Hall, " and it is to be hoped, 
at any rate, that Mr. Dulany will now continue to keep hounds himself again, 
and that the title of M. F. H. will never for long leave the Dulany family. 

The country, as has been said, is one of the best in the United States, 
differing very little from that of the Loudoun County Hunt, which it ad- 
joins, except that stone walls replace the post-and-rails in many places. Of 
course, in a country in which there are so many rocky cliffs as there are 
along the borders of Goose Creek, which runs through the country, all 
earth-stopping is labor in vain, and were it not for the sportsmanlike nature 
of the foxes, there would be many short runs ; but for some inexplicable 
reason, the foxes in northern Virginia decline to go to ground until they have 
led hounds a long chase; oftentimes drawing it so fine that they are unable 
to save their brushes. Many of the farmers join in the sport, while the 
hospitality of Virginians is well-known and visiting sportsmen can always be 
sure of a warm welcome and a good mount the next day. 



145 



The Portland Hunt Club 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR White 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, white collar and facings 

MASTER T. S. McGrath. Esq. 

HUNTSMAN The Master 

HOUNDS 1 couples, American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE - - Portland. Ore. 

DAYS OF MEETING Two days a week 

LENGTH OF SEASON October 1st to April 1st 

UP in the northwest comer of the United States, some three thou- 
sand miles from the centre of the hunting communities of the 
east, is a most enthusiastic group of sportsmen, who have formed 
themselves into the Portland Hunt Club. Beginning in a small way in 1 900, 
as a paper-chase organization, they have progressed gradually under the 
leadership of Mr. T. S. McGrath, who is an ardent horseman, until they 
have now excellent stables and plans for a clubhouse, which will shortly be 
completed. Of course, fox-hunting as easterners know it, is an absolutely 
new sport in the west, and Mr. McGrath deserves a tremendous amount of 
credit for the enthusiasm and singleness of purpose with which he has stuck 
to his project. 

In 1 907, some American hounds were procured, — cross-country riding 
up to that time having taken merely the form of paper-chases. These 
hounds, — which were used for drag-hunting, — were not entirely satis- 
factory, nor did this form of sport appeal to the members of the Club; 
accordingly in 1 908, a Horse Show was held for the purpose of raising 
sufficient funds with which to build stables, kennels and a clubhouse, and to 
procure a really good pack for the purpose of hunting the foxes with which 
the country abounds. Endless pains were taken to make this show a success 

146 




r. S. MCGRATH, ESQ., M.F.H. 



THE PORTLAND 

and although the financial crisis of 1 908 hurt the enterprise a great deal, 
Mr. McGrath and his associates stuck to it and made it come out even. 
It is now proposed to make this Horse Show an annual event and the amount 
of support given to it merely illustrates the fact that the Pacific slope is 
about ready for this sort of thing. 

At the present writing, the hounds in the possession of the Club do not 
amount to much, but, as has been said, these wall shortly be replaced by a 
larger and better pack. The membership is now over one hundred and 
twenty-five active members and the Field rarely numbers less than thirty, 
with a goodly percentage of ladies. The country is absolutely different from 
any other in America, and consists, for the most part, of level but rather 
rough pasture land, portions of which are heavily timbered. Mr. McGrath, 
himself, describes his country as follows : " Our stiffest jumps here are fallen 
trees, and to realize what I mean it is necessary to see them. Over these 
obstacles one gets jumps varying anywhere from two to eight feet in height. 
Of course we have no horses here which can jump eight feet, but we clear 
the trunks, — usually four to five feet high, — and crash through the branches 
as best we can. The members are very keen and the other day we had a 
stiff run through which thirty-six of them rode all the way. 

" Out here we ride thoroughbreds a great deal and, personally, I prefer a 
level-headed thoroughbred to any other horse in the world. Of course, I 
have had some which were not much good, but on the whole they exactly 
suit me. Our people also hunt half and three-quarter bred horses, the sire 
being always clean-bred and the dam a range mare or a mare with more or 
less hot blood. At present, I have a little horse, about three-quarter bred, 
who, when he came to me, had very bad manners and would not jump at 
all ; but he had a world of endurance and plenty of speed and now there is 
no obstacle big enough to prevent him from trying." 

O ye thrusters of the eastern hunting countries, remember the unbreakable 
character of these obstacles in the Portland Hunt country, and respectfully 
salute the western sportsmen who ride at them ! 



147 



The Portsmouth Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE UNIFORM Steel gray, black velvet collar 

silver Hunt buttons 

MASTER Arthur Cowton Heffenger, M. D. 

HON. HUNTSMAN Charles P. Heffenger, Esq. 

WHIPPER-IN Jeremiah Casey 

HOUNDS 1 couples, American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE - Portsmouth, N. H. 

DAYS OF MEETING \ '^'^'^ ^^^^ ^ ^^^''- "'"^'^ 

( Wednesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON t September 1st to January 1st 

( March 1st to May 1st 

ONE of the strongest supporters of the American hound in the 
east is Dr. Arthur Cowton Heffenger of Portsmouth, New 
Hampshire. A Virginian by birth and educated for the United 
States Navy at Annapolis, Maryland, he acquired his love of fox-hunting 
during his early days in the south and retained this in spite of some years' 
service in the Navy; so that when he settled in Portsmouth, he promptly set 
about foUov^ng his favorite sport in that part of the United States, which is 
hardly of such a character as to offer, at first glance, much encouragement to 
a ridmg man. 

The Portsmouth Hunt was founded in 1885, and Dr. Heffenger has 
been Master throughout its history, and has hunted the hounds, which he owtis, 
twice a week during the season, for twenty-three years. This season lasts 
from September to January, and from March to May, and there are no 
regular days, hounds going out when conditions are most suitable. Some 
hunting is also done during August, September and May, at night. The 
country is flat or gently rolling, but very cramped and rough, the fields being 
small, with many stone walls, and about half the territory is wooded or cov- 

148 




MASTER CHAHLES P. HEFFENGEK, 




TWO COUPLES OF THE PORTSMOUTH HOUNDS 



THE PORTSMOUTH 

ered by swamps. Foxes double much, and as a large portion of the coun- 
try is unrideable, one has to ride after, or to the hounds, rather than with 
them ; so that a clever, quiet horse is best suited to the work, as much 
trappy jumping has to be done. It often happens that a horse must push 
his way through thick alders and briers and buck over a good-sized wall 
into a maze of bushes. Thus, it goes v^thout saying that a horse to hunt 
this country should be a born leader and go fearlessly where he is headed, 
whether in moonlight or sunshine. 

The Virginia and Maryland horses, clean or half-bred, seem to negoti- 
ate the New England territory with more cleverness and satisfaction than 
those from other parts of the country, or England ; and the character and 
temper of the horse seem to have more to do with his success here than 
the amount of hot blood he has. It will be seen that a horse really ideal 
for this country is most likely to possess all-round useful qualities, a matter 
of much moment to the average New England hunting man, many of whom 
do not feel able to keep a horse for hunting alone. 

The Portsmouth hounds are bred, says Dr. Heffenger, " as near the 
American standard type as possible, which practically means a cross of the 
racy strains of the south, possessing the combmation of nose, hunting speed 
and stamina, upon the best English bitches. About seventeen years ago 
the breeding lines were started with ' Joe Forester,' an English-native cross, 
and crosses were made between Walker, Maupm, Robinson, July, Brooke 
and Wildgoose strains, and several of the best English packs, resulting in a 
hound of definite type and form, which so far has given the best sport in 
hunting the New England fox over this cramped and rugged country." 

If the scope of this volume permitted, it would be interesting to have Dr. 
Heffenger's opmion in detail, as he believes that m order to produce the 
best results it is necessary to use a very large infusion of American blood, 
and this is shown very clearly in such hounds as he bnngs to the annual 
foxhound shows. That his hounds give good sport in the kind of country 
they hunt, and in the way he desires, is unquestionable ; but that they breed 
to a type, or that any American hounds breed to as distinct a type as the 
English hound, we senously doubt. 

149 



The Radnor Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE UNIFORM Brown coat. light gray collar. Hunt buttons 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, light gray collar and facings 

MASTER W. Hinckle Smith. Esq. 

SECRETARY Harry W. Harrison. Esq. 

HUNTSMAN - Will Davis 

WHIPPER-IN George Donnon 

HOUNDS - 40 couples. American 

KENNELS 3 miles south of Bryn Mawr. Pa. 

POST-OFFICE Bryn Mawr. Pa. 

DAYS OF MEETING Tuesday. Thursday. Saturday, and all holidays 

LENGTH OF SEASON October 1 5th to March 15th 

UNDOUBTEDLY the largest and most widely known organiza- 
tion of its kind in the neighborhood of Philadelphia is the Rad- 
nor Hunt. It is also next to the oldest, being antedated only by 
the Rose Tree Fox Hunting Club. As now organized, it had its origin in 
a pack of hounds kept for many years at the old Pugh farm, near the 
present kennels, by one of Pennsylvania's sterling old Quaker farmer sports- 
men, Thomas Mather (no relation to the later M. F. H.). 

Messrs. James Rawle and Horace and Archibald Montgomery, who resided 
in the neighborhood, started hunting with Mather's hounds about 1 880 and 
they in time introduced some of their friends, — Messrs. Cooper Smith, R. 
E. Hastings, Maskell Ewing, Theodore Justice, Edmund H. McCullough, 
Edward F. Beale, Carroll Smythe, Charltan Yarnall, C. E. Mather and 
others, — and as these things so often do under happy circumstances, the sport 
grew in favor with these men until they became regular in their attendance 
with the hounds, occasionally helping with the expenses, then becoming 
regular contributors, and finally, at Mr. Rawle's suggestion, the present home 

150 



THE RADNOR 

was purchased, the Club organized, and very primitive kennels erected. Mr. 
James Rawle w^as elected President, Horace Montgomery first Master, and 
John Mather, son of the former owner of the pack, was employed as hunts- 
man. While the pack was enlarged and kenneled, no change in the method 
of hunting, handling or breeding was made during this regime, which lasted 
until 1887. A complete re-organization then took place, Mr. A. J. Cassatt 
being elected President and Mr. C. E. Mather M. F. H.; Mr. Charltan 
Yarnall succeeding Mr. Herbert Lycett as Secretary. 

Mr. A. J. Cassatt continued as President until his death in 1 906, when 
he was succeeded by Mr. Rudolph Ellis, the present incumbent. Mr. 
Charltan Yarnall was succeeded as Secretary by Mr. J. R. Valentine, followed 
in turn by Mr. Henry Geyelin, Mr. W. S. Ellis, and the present Secretary, 
Mr. H. W. Harrison. 

Mr. Mather hunted the American hounds, which he found there at the 
time of his election as M. F. H., for several years, and showed satisfactory 
sport with them. The pack consisted of sixteen and one-half couples, of the 
usual uneven and undisciplined character found among the numerous packs 
in Pennsylvania, and although new blood was introduced, no serious attempt 
was made to do much with them for several years, except to keep the pack 
up to a strength equal to that found at the start, and to have hounds which 
would hunt and run the line of a fox well. In these early days the hounds, 
wath true American independence, scorned all discipline. However, they 
answered their purpose, and many a pleasant day was spent over the hills 
and dales of the Radnor country with them, until misfortune in the shape 
of rabies appeared, and practically the whole pack was destroyed. 

It was in a measure to replace this loss that the Master began the importa- 
tion of English hounds, a move which was to lead ultimately to the present 
splendid pack of half-bred hounds, although at first the nucleus remained 
American. Mr. Mather soon became so enthusiastic in regard to the merits 
of the English hounds, that eventually he drafted out all the American blood, 
and for several seasons hunted the English pack alone, until, yielding to the 
pressure of the majority of his Field, he again introduced American hounds 
into the kennels. Later, finding the sentiment at Radnor very strong in 

131 



THE RADNOR 

their favor, rather than hunt the country with an American pack, he resigned 
in 1901, and moved the English pack to his place on the Brandywine, 
where he had for some time been keeping a small pack of his own. 

The sentiment which influenced the Radnor Field to desire a change back 
to the American hound, after several years of trial of the English hounds, 
was the apparent inability of the latter to furnish sport on cold, dry days, 
and their lack of voice, making it very difficult for the Field to get to them 
should they be thrown out in their broken country. 

Mr. Mather left the American pack, on his retirement from office, taking 
the English pack, which was his own property, away with him. His resigna- 
tion was a great loss to the Hunt, and his successor, Mr. John R. Valentine, 
had a difficult task to continue to show as good sport as his predecessor. 
He was, however, fully equal to it. Mr. Mather was, as has been said, an 
ardent supporter of the English hound, and although he had always kept at 
Radnor an Amencan pack as well as the English one, it was the latter that 
had been his greatest hobby, while Mr. Valentine was, and still is, a staunch 
believer in the merits of American hounds for the Radnor country. He, how- 
ever, realized their shortcomings, and promptly set to work to correct them 
as rapidly as possible, by crossing American dog-hounds on carefully selected 
bitches from the hill counties of England and Scotland, principally from the 
Fife and the Blackmore Vale. The American hounds were carefully selected 
for nose, voice, stamina and courage, and always tri-colored. This was done 
in the hope of getting a pack VNath more levelness and type than the usual 
American pack possesses ; at the same time, in no way sacrificing their won- 
derful nose and deep toned voice, so welcome to the sportsman who has 
made a wrong turn, or been left at the covert-side when the hounds have 
gone away. That this has been accomplished can be doubted by no one who 
has been out with the Radnor in the last five seasons. They have size and 
substance, not so much as the English, to be sure, but enough. They are 
fast, biddable, and good to look at, and have as good noses as pure Amer- 
ican hounds, possessing all their voice as well. 

The principal stallion hounds are "Leader," "Link" and "Ming," the 
former being the sire of more than half the pack. In no case has the Eng- 

152 



THE RADNOR 

lish top-cross been used, as that has been found unsuccessful, the light 
American bitches not mating well with the heavy English dog-hounds. 
During the last year of Mr. Valentine's Mastership he imported a Welsh 
hound with the idea of breeding him to the half-bred bitches, and in this 
way still further improving their stamina ; also with the idea of having the 
Welsh blood stiffen their coats. The few puppies entered this year bid fair 
to fulfil his expectations without in any way impairing the two great essen- 
tials, viz: nose and voice. 

One of the authors, who was lucky enough to enjoy a most excellent 
day's sport with the Radnor during Mr. Valentine's Mastership, gives his 
recollections as follows, quoted from a letter to a friend at the time : 

"Philadelphia, February 10th. 1904. 

" Dear C. — I went out with the Radnor yesterday ; queerest day for hunt- 
ing I ever saw, would not have taken hounds out of kennels at home; quite 
cold and, although the sun had thawed the top of the ground, it was as 
greasy as could be. Went out in the early morning train wath V — M — , 
who very kindly offered me a mount, — to Bryn Mawr station some half 
hour or so from town, and drove from there to the kennels about three 
miles away. I said to V — ' Do you mean to say they will hunt today ? ' 
' Yes,' he said, ' Why not ? ' I remarked that it was his horse and that 
if he'd risk its legs I'd gladly risk my neck. At the clubhouse, near which 
are the kennels and stables, we found our horses, — a beautiful little Irish 
mare for me and a big clean-bred colt for him, — and as hounds were to 
meet some three miles away, we promptly jogged on. 

"The meet was in a little country village and there was a good Field out, 
perhaps forty, fully half of them farmers; most of the latter mounted on 
businesslike looking cocktails ; with a good many of the members riding 
clean-breds. Hounds came up promptly at eleven, and a most workmanlike 
looking lot they are too, not much to look at, though I must say I like them 
better than most Americans I've seen. The Hunt staff were beautifully 
turned out, all on chestnuts, as Valentine has a leaning that way. You know 
they wear brown here instead of scarlet; I don't know why exactly, — 
some local prejudice, I believe, — but they all looked smart and ready for busi- 

153 



THE RADNOR 

ness. Valentine was away and Mr. David Sharpe was acting M. F. H., 
carrying the horn himself with a couple of professional whippers-in and one 
amateur, Mr. Harrison. Hounds moved off promptly and began drawing 
along the base of a long wooded range of hills. They were under absolute 
control and although working vsader than any English hounds I've ever seen, 
they seemed to be perfectly biddable and were handled in much the same 
manner as you would handle an English pack. 

"We worked along for perhaps two hours wathout finding, and then as 
we heard the Lima hounds running a mile or so away, Mr. Sharpe moved 
off to another portion of the country. Hounds came to the horn as well 
as you could ask for. Presently, we met Mr. Mather with about twenty 
couples of the Brandywine, and for the next hour both packs worked 
together, the two huntsmen riding side by side. In dravsang, there was 
very little to choose between the two lots, both of them working eagerly 
and well. 

"At last we found; the fox was holloaed away by one of the Brandywine 
whips and away we all went. I don't know which hounds found first, — 
both claimed the honor and I question if either huntsman knew, — anyway, 
both lots of hounds came to the holloa on the jump and a prettier sight 1 
never saw. Forty-two couples in all, running well and evenly together, and 
here again neither seemed to have the better of it. Once fairly started, what 
a gallop we did have ! Scent breast-high, hounds running like blazes and just 
screeching at him. The going was something appalhng, as greasy and slip- 
pery as possible, and as 1 rode at the first fence, — and let me tell you the 
fences in this country are nothing to jeer at, — I felt as 'Brooksby' did in 
'The Best of the Fun'; I wondered who would ride the old mare at home 
in Lincoln. But the honor of Middlesex was at stake, so at it we went and 
the little mare sailed over it as clean as a whistle. By jingo! it was grand 
for the next half hour, the Brandywine huntsman, Picton, and I side by side, 
— he vv4th a monocle in his eye, — though how he keeps it there Heaven 
only knows. Presently we came to a brook or, rather, a small creek. It was 
half frozen over, but hounds kept on, so in we went, horses splashing the icy 
water all over us, into a little covert on the other side, where hounds suddenly 

154 



THE RADNOR 

stopped. For an instant there was silence and then a sudden snarling told 
us that 'Mr. Charley' had breathed his last. Of course Mr. Sharpe and 
Picton both claimed that their hounds had done the trick. Frankly, I couldn't 
tell; neither could any one else. It was one of those short, sharp bursts with 
no checks that just 'bust' a fox, though I wish there had been checks so that 
I might have seen the pack at work better. Miss Dobson had the brush 
and Miss Mather the mask, and then we separated; Mr. Mather to go 
home to his kennels and we to the Radnor clubhouse for a bite. 

"After luncheon, Mr. Sharpe took me out to the kennels to see the hounds, 
of which they have about forty couples ; some ten pure English and the rest 
cross-bred. 'Sportsman' a Genesee Valley hound, is their best stallion 
and is as fine a type of English hound as you'd wish to see. The majority 
of the pack are big, rangy, light-colored hounds, perhaps twenty-four inches 
at the shoulder, with rather an American cast of head and body, but most 
of them fairly straight, with good legs and feet and lots of quality. They 
impress me as light all over, but perhaps they are not. Certainly they do 
their work well. " 

Such is the impression the Radnor made in 1 904 on a visiting sportsman. 
Today they are larger, have a good deal more bone and show, in many 
ways, a strong infusion of English blood. The Radnor dog-hounds weigh as 
much, stand as high — if not higher — at the shoulder, and have as much 
bone as any English hounds. 

Will Davis, their present huntsman, is an Englishman born and bred, 
and has hunted English hounds all his life, being late huntsman to the Pem- 
brokeshire. He naturally had a pretty strong prejudice against American 
hounds when he first came to the Radnor, but he told one of the authors 
recently that he was forced to admit that the Radnor hounds, as they are to- 
day, are very hard to beat in their work. " When 1 first took them," he said, 
" they were wild as hawks. They began hunting when they got ready and 
left off when they liked. But I stuck to it, and presently their manners im- 
proved. Any hounds can be taught manners if the poor brutes only know 
what you want them to do. 1 got a terrier from England, — and a good 'un, 
— and every time they ran a fox to ground I had him out if it was possible. 

155 



THE RADNOR 

Now they'll mark, — which is more than they'd do before." So much for 
the improvement in the work of the Radnor under Davis. It is to be hoped 
that he will have equal success in breeding for straightness and levelness. 

At Radnor, only the native fox is hunted. The season opens about 
October 1 5th wdth cub-hunting (the meets being scheduled at sunrise), un- 
til about November 10th, when the regular hunting starts and continues 
until the middle of March. Barring times when the snow may be too deep, 
or the ground too soft to gallop over without cutting up grass fields, the pack 
is hunted regularly throughout the season. The Radnor country is rolling, 
with lots of cover, and foxes are, and always have been plentiful. 

The farmers owning the land hunted over are all more or less interested 
in the sport, sometimes joining in the hunts and often appearing in the fields 
and giving information of the fox on the line of which the pack may be 
working. In 1 907, Mr. W. Hinckle Smith was elected to the Mastership in 
place of Mr. Valentine, who had resigned, and it is his hope and that of the 
Radnor members that they long will continue to be as interested in the sport, 
and be as good friends of the Hunt as they are at present. 



156 




MCR, ES(.I., M.F.H. 




M. C. JACKSON, ESQ., HON. HUNTSMAN 



The Riverside Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR - _ Dark green 

MASTER - Le Roy Roper, Esq. 

SECRETARY - M. J. Pegram. Esq., Petersburg, Va. 

HON. HUNTSMAN _ M. C. Jackson, Esq. 

HON. WHIPPERSIN - - \ '='• ^- B.Sydnor, Esq. 

( 2nd, W. Roane Ruffin, Esq. 

HOUNDS - 16 couples, American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Petersburg. Va. 

DAYS OF MEETING ^ Foxhounds, every hunting day 

( Draghounds, Wednesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON October 15th to April 15th 



FOX-HUNTING has been carried on about Petersburg, Vir- 
ginia, in an indefinite sort of way since the Revolutionary War, 
ahhough for several years after the Civil War there was very lit- 
tle done. The sport has, however, too strong a hold in the south to die out 
completely, and there are now five or six packs of hounds within a radius of 
fifteen miles of Petersburg. Of these, the Riverside Hunt, founded in 1 903, 
and recognized by the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association in 1 907, 
is perhaps the best known. Its founders are all members of the Riverside 
Country Club who are hunting men and who, while they could at any time 
hunt with the other packs in the vicinity, concluded to organize a Hunt of 
their own, chiefly within the membership of the Country Club. Mr. Duncan 
Wright was elected M. F. H. and served until 1906, when Mr. Le Roy 
Roper, the present Master, succeeded him. The Hunt Staff, which is strictly 
non-professional, is composed of M. C. Jackson, Esq., huntsman, E. B. 
Sydnor, Esq., I st whipper-in, and W. Roane Ruffin, Esq., 2nd whipper-in. 
The country about Petersburg abounds with foxes, but to the great sorrow 

157 



THE RIVERSIDE 

of the members, they are all of the short-running gray species, which fact, 
although it enables the hounds to kill often, thus keeping the pack well 
blooded, is not productive of the long, hard runs afforded by the stronger red 
variety. 

There are two packs at Riverside, one used for drag-hunting only, going 
out on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and the regular foxhound pack which 
goes out on every hunting day through the season. The hounds are Amer- 
ican, many of them bred in the kennels, and all of them Virginia-bred with- 
out any strain of English blood, the Master claiming that his hounds are 
faster, give a great deal more tongue, and when carefully broken are as easily 
controlled in the field as those of English blood. 

The landowners, who are very much harassed by the foxes and most of 
them also keen hunting men, are not only willing but anxious to have the 
hounds on their land and usually join in. The country is open, with very 
little wire and clean negotiable fences. Any good hunter is suited to it, and 
the preference of the members is about evenly divided between half- and 
thorough-bred horses. 



158 



The Rose Tree Fox Hunting Club 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Old rose 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, old rose facings 

MASTER - Simon Delbert. Esq. 

SECRETARY WQliam H. Codies. Esq., Media. Pa. 

HON. HUNTSMAN - - - Samuel Pinkerton. Esq. 

HON. WHIPPERS-IN \ l"'^- ^P^"f ^^^^l' ^- 

( 2nd. A. L. Hawkins, Esq. 

HOUNDS - — 25 couples. American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Media. Pa. 

DAYS OF MEETING Monday, Wednesday. Thursday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON November ! 5th to March 17th 



THE first organized Hunt Club in America was, it is thought, 
the Brooklyn Hunt Club, mention of which has been made in 
the article on the Meadow Brook Hunt. The first organization, 
however, of which we have accurate records, is the Gloucester Fox Hunt- 
ing Club, the initial meeting of which was held on December 1 3th, 1 766, 
in the old Philadelphia coffee-house, at the northwest corner of Front and 
Market streets. It was largely attended, the membership of the Club, 
organized at that meeting, containing about 1 25 names, among them such 
well known ones as Benjamin Chew, Charles and Thomas Willing, James 
Wharton, Thomas Mifflin, Israel and Robert Morris, John Cadwalader, 
Richard Bache, Col. Thomas Heston, Joseph Penrose, Joseph Bullock, 
John Dunlap, Isaac Cox, Thomas Leiper and James Caldwell, of Philadel- 
phia ; and of New Jersey, Gen. Wilkinson, Gen. Franklin Davenport, Capt. 
James B. Cooper, Capt. Samuel Whitall, Col. Joshua Howell, Col. Thomas 
Robinson, and Col. Benjamin Flower. 

159 



THE ROSE TREE 

Capt. Samuel Morris was elected President, and it was he and twenty- 
one other members who organized the First City Troop of Philadelphia City 
Cavalry. Capt. Morris's negro slave, old " Natty," served the Club as 
kennelman and huntsman from 1 769 until the Revolution. The uniform of 
the Club, adopted in 1 774, was a "dark brown cloth coatee with lapelled 
dragoon pockets, white buttons and frock sleeves, buff waistcoat and 
breeches and black velvet cap." In 1 775, the pack consisted of fifteen and 
a half couples of hounds and in 1 778, when the kennels were on the Dela- 
ware, near Gloucester Point, of sixteen couples. Just what type these 
hounds were it would be very interesting to know, but it seems probable 
that they were very similar to the hounds used in England for fox-hunting 
at that time. If this was the case, it is curious to note the development in 
the two countries, for today, the Rose Tree hounds are of the so-called 
American type, which, of course, is vastly different from the existing English 
type, and yet both could probably trace back to the same parent stock. 
This old Club survived until 1818 and existed fifty-two years. 

Delaware and Chester counties, which were not divided until 1 789, 
comprise probably the longest-hunted district in Pennsylvania. Men living 
within a few years past, have told us of fox-hunts they witnessed when boys 
in Middletown, Aston and Concord Townships, when Charley Pennell, 
Nicholas and Joseph Fairlamb, "Squire" Baldwin and Antony Baker were 
noted hunters, and later, we learn of hunts from the Black Horse and Anvil 
Taverns, the latter in part of the township which is now Media. An hon- 
orary member of the Rose Tree Hunt also kept hounds many years ago and 
George W. Hill, at one time M. F. H., began his hunting wath him about 
1830. 

From George E. Darlington, the author of a book entitled " The Origin and 
History of the Rose Tree Fox Hunting Club," from which has been drav\Ti 
much of our information regarding the Rose Tree, we learn that Charles 
Pennell, who was born about I 760, kept hounds from his earliest manhood. 

" We heard of him," says Mr. Darlington, " from a gentleman who was 
born in 1 797, and who, when a small boy, was watching with his brothers 
the hounds running over the hills on his father's farm early one morning, 

160 




GENERAL EDWARD MORRELL, LATE MASTER 



THE ROSE TREE 

that Charley Pennell came riding to them on a good young horse that had 
never hunted before and which he put at a low worm fence and that the 
horse refused to take it. At Mr. Pennell's request, the boys cut a stout 
stick for him, and with this persuader he drove his horse at the fence again 

and went blundering on after the hounds Few farmers objected to 

hunting over their lands, and generally they were fond of seeing the hunt and 
hearing the hounds in full cry, and this love of the sport is illustrated by the 
fact that a farmer named Jesse Russell, living in Edgmont township and 
whose farm contained a well wooded round-top called Hunting Hill, a 
favorite retreat for foxes, when on his death-bed requested that he should be 
buried on Hunting Hill, where he could hear the hounds running. He was 
buried on the north side of this hill, and afterward the spot was adopted 
as a family burying-ground and so still remains, with a wall of native 
stone around it, which is fast going to decay, but which some of the 
fox-hunting clubs of the county propose to rebuild and put in good 
condition."* 

In the winter of 1 852-3, Mr. J. Howard Lewis and Mr. George Darling- 
ton began fox-hunting. At that time Jim Burns and Ned Engle of Chester, 
John Mahoney of Rockdale, George Powell of Springfield, Jones and 
Hunter Moore of Haverford, Dan Abrahams and Bill and Tom Crossley 
of Radnor, Chandler Thomas and Pratt and Washington Bishop of Upper 
Providence, Bill Noble of Ridley, Jesse Hickman of Thornbury, William 
Grant and Levis Speakman, of Birmingham, William Hannon of Aston, 
Osbom Booth of Concord and James Pinkerton of Gradyville, all kept 
packs of hounds, sometimes hunting together as a " trencher-fed " pack and 
sometimes taking their own hounds out for the amusement of their friends 
and themselves. Messrs. Lewis and Darlington had four or five couples of 
their own which they hunted together until the Rose Tree Club was 
organized in 1 859 by the election of J. Howard Lewis as President, George 
E. Darlington as Secretary, and J. Morgan Baker as Treasurer. Every 
member of the Club was an active and trained fox-hunter, well qualified to 
hunt the hounds by practical experience, and no Master of hounds or hunts- 

* This intention has been carried out. — The authors. 

161 



THE ROSE TREE 

man was appointed. A whipper-in, Jim Miller (colored), was employed to 
bring back stray hounds, and was said to be a good and bold rider. 

"Those were the days," says Mr. Darlington, "when the sport was truly 
hunting, and not steeplechasing with hounds across a country. The hunt- 
ing horses were not as good then as now, for they were not blooded stock, 
but the hunters knew how to save their horses' wind and strength by never 
forcing a jump unnecessarily, and by taking some of the work upon them- 
selves by climbing steep hills on foot, leading their horses to the top." 

On October 4th, 1873, the Club was reorganized. George W. Hill was 
made President and M. F. H., Frederick Fairlamb, Vice-President, and 
Samuel Miller, Secretary, while the annual dues of the members at this time 
were fixed at five dollars. In 1877 the Club had a membership of thirty 
active members and fourteen contnbutmg members, and the by-laws pro- 
vided that membership should be confined to residents of Delaware and 
Chester counties and Philadelphia, and the annual dues were increased to 
ten dollars, with ten dollars initiation fee. About this time, many of the mem- 
bers kept horses exclusively for hunting, and a race meeting was instituted on 
the old Rose Tree track with a steeplechase course, which took in a portion 
of the Bullock farm and in which the jumps were mostly post-and-rail 
fences. The residents of Delaware and Chester counties and the Philadel- 
phians took great interest in the meeting and turned out in goodly numbers. 

On November 22nd, 1881, the Club was incorporated by the Honora- 
ble Thomas J. Clayton, President-Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of 
Delaware County (who afterward was a member of the club till the time of 
his death), under the name of " The Rose Tree Fox Hunting Club," the 
incorporators being, — Fairman Rogers, A. J. Cassatt, George W. Hill, J. 
Howard Lewis, Henry E. Saulnier, Samuel C. Lewis, Rush S. Huidekoper, 
J. Edward Farnum, J. Mitchell Baker, Moncure Robinson, Jr., George M. 
Lewis, William H. Corlies and George E. Darlington. The following of- 
ficers were elected, — President and M. F. H., George W. Hill; Vice- 
Presidents, William E. Saulnier and J. Howard Lewis; Secretary and Treas- 
urer, William H. Corlies. 

In 1 88 1 , a clubhouse was erected under an agreement with Benjamin 

162 



^"y 



^ 



GOING TO COVER 




THE ROSE TREE 

Rogers, owner of the property and incidentally of the Rose Tree Inn ; and 
George W. Hill and William H. Corlies, Trustees for the Rose Tree Fox 
Hunting Club, dated April 23rd, 1881, which stipulated that the Club 
should have the privilege, at its own cost, to erect a clubhouse for its enjoy- 
ment for the term of fifteen years from that day; at the end of which time 
the house was to become the property of Mr. Rogers, and the Club could 
then give it up or become tenants, the Club reserving the right to remove 
the house at any time during the term, by pajing to Mr. Rogers the sum of 
one hundred dollars for each year his ground had been occupied by it. The 
most friendly relationship always existed between Mr. Rogers and his family 
and the Club members, and the suppers supplied monthly at the regular 
meeting nights were invariably satisfactory to the members and their nu- 
merous guests. The clubhouse was plainly finished in yellow pine, the 
lower story being a banqueting-room and the upper story containing bed- 
rooms for the convenience of guests. 

In 1 905, some time after the death of Mr. Rogers, who was affec- 
tionately and familiarly known as " Uncle Benny," it was decided to secure 
more commodious quarters. Largely through the efforts of General Morrell, 
the large farm adjoining the old clubhouse, on which were situated an old 
fashioned stone mansion, and a large barn, and out-buildings, was purchased. 
The house was altered and adapted for club purposes, stabling accommoda- 
tions increased and new kennels built. 

Any history of the Rose Tree Hunt would be incomplete without a 
sketch of Mr. George W. Hill, who held the Mastership from October I st, 
1 873, up to the time of his death on March 30th, 1 900. Mr. Hill was 
bom in the old borough of Chester in the year 1 825. During his early youth 
he lived at Rockdale, and when he was about sixteen years old began his 
fox-hunting wath the late Mark Pennell, who has been previously mentioned. 
He hunted actively with the Rose Tree Club hounds until about two years 
before his death, when he was badly disabled by a fall in the hunting-lield. 
In spite of this, however, he tried to hunt again during the winter of 1 898— 
1899 and, although much shattered in health, took an active interest in the 
management of the hounds until the end. He was highly esteemed by all 

163 



THE ROSE TREE 

who knew him, and his career as Master of Foxhounds was probably longer 
than that of any other man in America. 

In 1 874, Mr. J. Edward Famum, then a member of the Club, conceived 
the idea that an infusion of English blood would be of advantage to the pack 
and accordingly imported three or four couples of English hounds; but these 
were used only a short time. The hounds which the Rose Tree Hunt pur- 
chased originally were procured by Mr. Hill mainly from Maryland and 
Virginia and the pack has varied in number from eight to twenty-five 
couples, there being now about twenty-five couples in the kennels, which are 
located a short distance from the clubhouse, near the race-track and the 
famous Rose Tree Inn. The Hunt continues to hold its annual race meeting 
with great success, until it is now one of the most important amateur meet- 
ings in the country. 

On Mr. Hill's death. General Edward Morrell was elected Master and 
continued to fill that office up to the end of the hunting season of 1 906- 
1907, when he was reluctantly forced, on account of the demands on his 
time, to relinquish the position. Like his predecessors, he was a great be- 
liever in the American hound, holding that for a rough country where coverts 
are large and hounds cannot be easily followed, these hounds are more use- 
ful than the English; in fact, all the packs now maintained in Pennsylvania, 
— and there are a great many, — use the native hound except the Brandy- 
•wine, Mr. Mather's private pack, a description of which will be found in 
another chapter. 

In 1 878, Wells Rogers was appointed huntsman and filled that position 
up to 1 905, having full charge of the feeding and care of the hounds in 
kennels and of the hunting in the field. The positions of whippers-in have 
been ably filled by Samuel McClure and Samuel Pinkerton for a long time, 
the latter succeeding to the office of huntsman on the resignation of Wells 
Rogers in 1905. 

Upon the retirement of General Morrell, Mr. Simon Delbert, the Chair- 
man of the Kennel Committee, long a resident of Media, and an active 
member in the hunting field, was elected as his successor. The preference 
for the American hound, rather than for the English, is very strong, and Mr. 

164 



THE ROSE TREE 

Delbert, in deference to the wishes of the Club at large, shows no inclination 
to change the old character of the pack, which has shown such good sport 
to its many followers for almost sixty years. 

The friendly relations with the farmers have always been carefully pre- 
served and every effort is made to prevent riding over their land when it is 
in a soft condition; while, of course, all damage done by hounds, foxes or 
members is promptly paid for by the Club. For several years past the hunt- 
ing season has been inaugurated with a Farmers' breakfast, at some of which 
as many as two hundred landowners have been guests of the club. These 
breakfasts are usually elaborate affairs, and the members of the Club don 
aprons, wait upon their guests and bid them welcome. At the conclusion of 
the breakfast, about mid-day, gymkhana races, games and sports are held, in 
which all are contenders. 



165 



The Shelburne Hounds 

(MR. WEBB'S) 

DISTINCTIVE UNIFORM Scarlet coat, black collar and cuffs 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coal, scarlet facings, black collar 

MASTER J. Watson Webb, Esq. 

FIRST WHIPPER-IN AND KENNEL HUNTSMAN - W. Hopkins 

HOUNDS 1 5 couples. English. 

KENNELS " Shelburne Farms," Shelburne, Vt. 

POST-OFFICE - ~ Shelburne, Vi. 

DAYS OF MEETING - Three days a week 

, r-Ki^T-i I /->r- or- A c/^M ^ September 1st to November 15th 

LENGTH OF SEASON { » ■. »« or>i . i 

( April ist to May jUth, when weather permits 

VERMONT is the northernmost of all the eastern states which 
can boast a recognized pack of foxhounds, although there are 
several packs which have long been maintained just over the 
border, in Canada. 

On the borders of Lake Champlain, about eight miles from Burlington, 
Vt., is situated "Shelburne Farms," the great estate of Dr. W. Seward 
Webb, which comprises about four thousand acres of pasture land, culti- 
vated fields and wooded uplands. The surrounding country is of much the 
same character as Mr. Webb's estate and is held by a class of landowners 
all of whom are friendly to him and some of whom are interested in sport. 

These are the conditions which existed in 1 902 when Mr. J. Watson 
Webb, eldest son of Dr. Webb, began hunting a pack of beagles at " Shel- 
burne Farms," and these are the conditions which exist today. The beagles 
sufficed for two seasons and then a scratch pack of harriers took their place 
in order to get more pace. But since these could not fulfil the desired re- 
quirements, they were in turn replaced, in 1 904, by a small importation of 
six couples of English foxhounds from the Ledbury and other packs; and 

166 



THE SHELBURNE 

now, by breeding, the pack has begun to assume the proportions its young 
Master wished for. 

Mr. Webb is a very keen sportsman ; he has done some steeplechasing 
and flat-racing and his horses have done well at the smaller Hunt meetings 
at which they have started. He has from time to time imported both 
horses and hounds from England and there is every prospect that during the 
coming years the pack will rank with the best in the country. As we all 
know, given enthusiasm, executive ability, persistence and a bank account 
to correspond to these qualities and the future of almost any pack is safe. 
The M. F. H. of the Shelburne Hounds possesses all of these qualifications, 
the greatest of which, in the opinion of the authors, is persistency. 

The greatest difficulty with which the Master has to contend, is the iso- 
lation of his country and the consequent lack of a Field. It is discouraging to 
build up a pack of hounds and have them go out day after day with no one 
to appreciate their excellence ; and it is very easy, under such conditions, to 
get a little slack for want of criticism and to find one's pack going down 
hill. Mr. Webb has two younger brothers who are quite keen, and what 
with his friends and theirs he has a small Field part of the time. ' So far, 
most of the hunting has been after a drag, as Mr. Webb's enforced absence 
from home at college has not permitted him to pay much attention to earth- 
stopping, without which good sport is impossible. The country, however, 
compared with others on this side of the water, has excellent possibilities for 
fox-hunting, and foxes abound. Since leaving the university he is able to 
devote more attention to it and good results are sure to follow. The coun- 
try, as we have said, is a most excellent " riding " one and is blessed with 
very little wire as yet, fences being for the most part of the " worm 
variety. 

With so enthusiastic a Master it is only a question of time when his dif- 
ficulties will be overcome, and the authors feel sure that the pleasure which 
Mr. Webb is deriving from his little pack more than makes up for the 
troubles and worries of its early days. 



The Smithtown Hunt 



MASTER - - Clarence H. Robbins, Esq. 

SECRETARY ■ - John Turton, Esq., Smithtown, Long Island. N. Y. 

HUNTSMAN ~ ~ The Master 

HON. WHIPPERS-IN \ ''*■ R"''"' Gi''"°^f- i'- ^Isq. 

( Znd, Lawrence Butler, Lsq. 

HOUNDS 1 couples, English 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Smithtown. Long Island. N. Y. 

DAYS OF MEETING Wednesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON - About four months, autumn and winter 



LONG ISLAND has always been noted for its sportsmen and for 
its sporting establishments. Two of the greatest race-tracks in 
the country are situated upon it, and those who have read the 
chapter on the Meadow Brook Hunt have noted that some of the earliest 
hunting in the United States was upon its soil. Its area is great enough to 
allow room for a dozen packs of hounds, — more than there are now, — 
and the conformation of the country and its fences are adapted to both fox- 
and drag-hunting. At Bayside, L. I., a pack of hounds had been main- 
tained for some time, and as the country gradually grew up and became 
more cramped, the followers of this pack began to feel that a more regular 
organization was necessary. 

Accordingly, in 1 904, Messrs. R. Lawrence Smith, Marshall Smith, Joseph 
Grace, Russell Grace, Devereux Emmett, John Turton, Winslow White, 
William Minot, Lawrence Butler, Robert Gilmore and Henry Bell formed 
themselves into a Hunt Club to be known as the Smithtown Hunt. Mr. R. 
Lawrence Smith was elected Master and, being a staunch believer in Amer- 
ican hounds, bought twenty couples in the south and brought them to Long 
Island, where they have been hunted during the last three years. While 

168 




CLARENCE H. ROBBINS, ESQ., M.F.H. igo;- 



THE SMITHTOWN 

these hounds were found to be good after foxes when once they were 
started, they were so unmanageable that a change was decided upon. For 
this reason Mr. Clarence Robbins, who had been elected to the Mastership 
on the resignation of Mr. Smith at the close of the season of 1 907, brought 
over ten couples of hounds from England, and intends in time to breed from 
these a good-sized pack of his own. A few couples of American hounds 
are still kept, as there are some members of the Hunt who are under the 
impression that they are better for fox-hunting than their imported cousins. 

The country over which the Smithtown rides is typical of Long Island ; 
rolling, and in places quite hilly, the high land is mostly covered with scrub 
oaks, dwarf pines and thick underbrush, and these coverts, which are very 
large in extent, are well supplied with foxes. In between the hills are a 
great many grass fields, the enclosures being fair sized, and bounded with 
clean post-and-rails, affording the best of galloping and jumping. Unluckily 
these large areas of scrub woodland in which the foxes lie are too great in 
extent and too unrideable in character to give the Field a chance to follow 
hounds and it is only for this reason that the members of the Hunt are in- 
clined to follow the drag at all. Blank days are almost unknown, and " the 
glorious uncertainty of fox-hunting" wnith the Smithtown men is only whether 
the fox will take to the open or cling to the large, strong coverts. 

Most of the Field ride clean-bred or at least seven-eighths-bred horses, 
but the Master writes us that any fairly well-bred one which can jump is 
really perfectly suited to the country. 



169 



The Suffolk Hounds 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR - Mauve 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, mauve collar and facings 

MASTER Richard Newton, Jr., Esq. 

SECRETARY — H. P. Robbins, Esq., "Asher House" 

Southampton, L. 1., N. Y. 

HUNTSMAN - F. Haile 

1st, Daniel Gladwin 



WHIPPERS-IN ) o J r- ^/I 

znd, Lieorge Moore 

HOUNDS 1 2 couples, English 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Southampton, L. I., N. Y. 

DAYS OF MEETING Wednesday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON j September Isttojanuao. 1st. Bye- 

( days m wmter when weather permits 



NO porrion of Long Island is better fitted by nature for cross- 
country riding than Suffolk County. Acres on acres of good, 
sound turf with very litde cover and practically no swamps make 
the galloping all that could be desired, and to these natural advantages the 
farmers have added the cleanest of timber fences, big and stiff, but so well 
placed that any good hunter can negotiate them. 

We have already said, in the chapter on the Essex Hounds, that Mr. 
Pfizer had been in the habit at one time of bringing his pack down to 
Southampton for a part of the season, and when the time came, as it did in 
1 906, that he did not return, many of the summer colony who had estates 
in Southampton, Water-Mill, Bridgehampton, Amagansett and Easthampton 
found that they had become so much wedded to the sport that they could 
not dispense wath it. Accordingly, on October 1 5th of that year, Messrs. 
Charles Coster, H. P. Robbins, W. Scott Cameron and Richard Newton, 
Jr., representing the keenest of the hunting element, met at Southampton and 
formed the Suffolk Hunt. 

170 




RICHARD NEWTON, JR., ESQ., M.F.H. 



THE SUFFOLK 

During the time that Mr. Pfizer had hunted the country, Mr. Newton 
had often acted as Field Master and it was he who was elected M. F. H. 
of the new organization. Then came the question of hounds; and Mr. 
Charles Coster very kindly bought twelve couples of the bitch pack which 
were at that time offered for sale by the Orange County Hunt and lent them 
to the country to be hunted as a subscription pack. With these as a nu- 
cleus, the pack is steadily growing. In 1 908 they showed a pack of five 
couples at the annual Westminster Kennel Club Show, Madison Square 
Garden, New York, and while they did not compare favorably writh the 
crack packs which competed there, it certainly showed the right kind of spirit, 
and the Master deserves great praise for making a beginning. 

A better riding country it would be hard to find; the big upstanding 
post-and-rail fences meet one every few hundred yards, hounds run fast over 
the flat grass country and it requires a bold, big jumping, clean-bred horse to 
live with the Suffolk. 

The fixtures are all withm easy hackmg distance of the many small towns 
in the country, although it is mainly from the localities before mentioned that 
the supporters of the Hunt come; in fact the country proper includes all 
these townships and is in charge of a committee of members, who take great 
pains to treat the property-owners with the utmost consideration. In con- 
sequence, all are in quiet sympathy with the sport, as they know that all 
damage bills are promptly paid and that the Hunt values the privileges ac- 
corded to it by their permission to nde over the land. 

Each year there is a great Hunt supper, at which the farmers are the 
guests of the Club, whose members vie with each other in making them feel 
at home. 

During the last two years a steeplechase meeting has been inaugurated 
and the three-quarter-mile track which has been laid out at Southampton is 
supplemented by two steeplechase courses; one of them with regulation 
fences and the other over a natural country. This meeting is the scene each 
fall of a very pleasant little gathering of Long Island sportsmen, and to the 
credit of Suffolk County horses, be it said that it takes a nag of more than 
first-rate quality to "show them the way." 

171 



The Tomahawk Hunt 



DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Bronze green 

MASTER Wallace W. Sanford, Esq. 

SECRETARY V. R. Shackelford, Esq., Orange, Va. 

HUNTSMAN - The Master 

HOUNDS - - - 1 couples, American 

KENNELS - - - " Kenmore", Orange. Va. 

POST-OFFICE - Orange, Va. 

DAYS OF MEETING - - Thursday, with an occasional bye 

LENGTH OF SEASON - October 1st to May 1st 

THE autumn of 1902 saw the founding of a small Hunt by 
Messrs. L. S. Ricketts, J. B. McComb, John W. McComb. H. 
S. Holladay, Jr., E. B. Sidnor, W. W. Osborne and L. L. 
Shannon, all residents of Orange County, Virginia. The organization, which 
was first called the Orange County Hunt, was the outcome of the interest 
and enthusiasm of its founders in fox-hunting and of the breeding of the type 
of horse used for that purpose. 

The first Master was Mr. J. B. McComb, and for the first two seasons he 
worked hard to get the little Hunt on its feet In 1 904, Mr. McComb was 
succeeded by Mr. Jaffrey Woodriff, who also remained in office for two 
seasons, when the present Master, Mr. Wallace Sanford, was elected. In 
1 906, the Hunt changed to its present name in order not to conflict with the 
Orange County Hunt of New York and the Plains, Virginia, and made ap- 
plication for recognition by the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association, 
which was promptly granted. Since Mr. Sanford's election, the Hunt has 
gone forward steadily and now has taken its place as one of the well-known 
organizations of Virginia. 

The territory hunted over comprises the northwestern half of Orange 

172 




WALLACE v.. SAXFORD, ESQ., M.F.H. 



THE TOMAHAWK 

County, which includes the townships of Rapidan, Orange, Madison Run 
and Somerset. 

The fences are for the most part typical of that section of Virginia, of the 
"worm" variety, with an occasional plank fence and sometimes a "staked 
rail." Hitherto, wire has interfered very little with the hunting, but of late 
it is beginning to creep in, and already arrangements are being made to panel 
the country. The surface of the territory hunted is rather more hilly than 
one would wish to see, and the jumping is at times rather trappy, so that a 
very temperate three-quarter-bred horse, who can "pop" cleverly is the one 
best suited to it. The members of the Tomahawk Hunt find that for their 
use the American foxhound is preferable, but the pack is still in its infancy, 
only ten couples being kept at present, and it is possible that time and ex- 
perience wall lead them to change their opinion. At present, the hounds are 
used for both fox and drag. 

The landowners take a great interest in the sport and evince perfect wil- 
lingness to allow hunting over any of their property; provided always, of 
course, that any damage done to crops or fences is promptly made good. 



173 



The Toronto Hunt 

DISTINCTIVE COLLAR Dark blue 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, scarlet facings, dark blue collar 

MASTER George W. Beardmore, Esq. 

SECRETARY E. B. Johnson, Esq., Scarboro, Ontario, Canada 

HUNTSMAN - Frank Haynes 

WHIPPER-IN - John Potter 

HOUNDS - - 20 couples, English 

KENNELS Scarboro, Ontario 

POST-OFFICE - - - Toronto, Ontario 

DAYS OF MEETING Tuesday and Saturday 

Four months in autumn and 



LENGTH OF SEASON - , . „. ... 

winter, bix weeks in spring 



CANADA, to which a great English writer recently referred as 
"the future playground of Europe," has always furnished an 
abundance of sport of the rougher sort. Owing to the rigor of 
its winter climate, however, fox-hunting has obtained a foothold only in the 
few favored localities where the inborn love of the chase to be found in all 
Englishmen has been able to overcome the obstacles presented by nature 
and the attitude of the French population, which constitutes a strong propor- 
tion of the landowners. 

The average "habitant" does not as a rule actively oppose the sport as 
practised by his Anglo-Saxon neighbor, but maintains a stolid indifference 
to it, and it often requires much tact on the part of the M. F. H. to success- 
fully handle questions of damages and to retain the good will of the small 
fanners. 

Frenchmen, however, are really good sportsmen at heart; one has only 
to consider the number of packs kept up in France at the present day to 

174 



THE TORONTO 

be convinced of this fact. True it is that these packs are maintained chiefly 
for stag- and boar-hunting, rather than exclusively for the pursuit of the fox, 
but the French residents in that portion of the Province of Quebec w^hich 
has been hunted by the Montreal Hunt for over eighty years have learned 
to love the sport of fox-hunting, and not only has all opposition long since 
ceased, but there has sprung up near Montreal, of late, an organization v^^hose 
officers and members are predominantly of French descent. 

The Toronto Hunt owes its origin to a small group of Englishmen who 
formed a Hunt Association at Toronto about the middle of the last century. 

The newly formed organization elected to the office of M. F. H. John 
Hendrie, Esq., and backed him with a liberal subscription for the purpose 
of procuring a pack of hounds and putting the Hunt on its feet. Mr. Hen- 
drie was a keen hunting man, a great lover of horses and perhaps the most 
noted Canadian sportsman of his day. He always maintained a large stud 
for the breeding of racehorses and hunters, and no name is better knowTi 
today in the racing world of America. A number of drafts were obtained 
from England, and the Master, with J. Halligan as huntsman, began regular 
hunting. After a very successful Mastership, Mr. Hendrie gave up the 
hounds and Mr. J. Copeland was elected in his stead. 

The records of this period are obscure, but it was during Mr. Copeland's 
years in office that the Hunt received a great impetus by the stationing in 
Toronto of English regiments, both cavalry and infantry, some ten years 
after the founding of the organization. Wherever British officers are sta- 
tioned, the world over, there British national sport in some form or other is 
sure to flourish, and these may be called the golden years of the Toronto 
Hunt. Mr. Copeland resigning about this time. Colonel Jennings took com- 
mand of the pack and country, and, procuring additions to the kennels from 
England, gave his Field sport of the very highest order until compelled to 
resign his office on account of his regiment being ordered away. Mr. George 
Gooderham succeeded Col. Jennings, but the loss of the support of the mili- 
tary element was a severe one and the Hunt languished for several years 
during his Mastership and that of his successor, Mr. Andrew Smith. 

During the early nineties, however, the Hunt was re-organized, new ken- 

175 



THE TORONTO 

nels built, more property acquired and its popularity has continued to in- 
crease from that day to this, especially since the entering into office of the 
present Master, Mr. George W. Beardmore. 

At the outset, before the unlucky introduction of barbed wire, the fox 
alone was hunted, but of late years, this great obstacle to sport has increased 
so rapidly that the drag has been substituted, although there are strong 
hopes of dealing with the wire evil by systematic panelling methods and 
thus enabling a return to the better sport of fox-hunting. 

The country is a first rate galloping one, the fields in the eastern portion 
of it being very large, comprising grass land and pasture wath clean fencing 
and, as yet, not much wire. When hounds meet in this section, the mem- 
bers of the Field are apt to be mounted on horses which are clean-bred or 
have only a very small infusion of cold blood, as hounds run very hard on 
the grass, and two and sometimes three lines of four to six miles each are 
usually laid. In the north and west countries, the going is quite trappy 
and the fields cramped, and as there is a good deal of wire to be met with, 
a more temperate mount is required; most of the Field riding three-quarter- 
bred horses. As the fencing here is plentiful and much diversified, a clever 
jumper is a sine qua non if one wishes to be carried with comfort and 
safety. 

At present the landowners are very friendly, as a general thing, and 
the efforts of the Hunt authorities to interest them by means of horse 
shows and race meetings have met with considerable success. 

In 1 908, Mr. Beardmore, feeling that new blood was needed in the ken- 
nels, went to Ireland and personally secured a number of hounds, includ- 
ing several stallion hounds from the Tipperary with which he hopes to 
greatly improve his pack. 



176 



The Upland Hunt 



MASTER - - Edward Crozer, Esq. 

SECRETARY Robert H.Page. Esq., Upland. Pa. 

HUNTSMAN _ Abner Garrett 

HOUNDS - - 20 couples. American 

KENNELS - - - Upland, Pa. 

POST-OFFICE Chester. Pa. 

DAYS OF MEETING -- - Every hunting day 

LENGTH OF SEASON - - August 1st to April 1st 

PROBABLY more Hunts flourish around Philadelphia to-day than in 
any other portion of the country, and the Upland Hunt, now Mr. 
Crozer's private pack, is one of the most recent of these. 

In 1 900, Mr. Crozer and Mr. J. Howard Lewis, Jr., whose father was 
one of the founders of the Rose Tree Fox Hunting Club, supplied a long- 
felt want by starting the Upland Hunt in a section of the country which, 
up to that time, had not been hunted by an organized pack of hounds. 
Messrs. Crozer and Lewis, as well as a number of other residents, had been 
hunting the country in an irregular manner for several years, and when the 
organization was started it was joined by pretty much everybody around the 
country. Mr. Crozer, who was elected M. F. H., owned most of the 
hounds, many of them being part of a pack owned and maintained by one 
branch of his family in Delaware County, Maryland, for the last seventy- 
five years. 

The Upland hounds are hunted by Abner Garrett, a typical American 
huntsman, who handles them in the good old-fashioned method which has 
been in force in America since time immemorial and has not yet been dis- 
carded by American huntsmen as it has by Englishmen. The Master is a 
keen hound-man, taking as much interest in the work of his hounds as he 

177 



THE UPLAND 

does in riding over the big, stiff fences of Delaware County. He contends, 
to use his own words, that "any cur can run a breast-high scent" and 
likes nothing better than to hear his tender-nosed hounds throw their deep 
voices on the line of a fox, perhaps six or eight hours old, which " makes 
the shivers run up and down your back." Hounds go out early in the 
morning, work about the open country and woodlands till they hit an over- 
night drag, go on with it at a varying pace, and, — to give the devil his due, 
— usually run their quarry in at the end of a long day's hunting. That this 
is very pretty work, no one who has seen it will question, and many are 
inclined to agree that, if this method is employed, Mr. Crozer is right in con- 
tending that " an American hound with a heavy tongue vAW settle down 
and hunt an overnight drag better than die English or half-bred English type. 
The slow work of a good hound (American) I find very attractive." 

This may be so, but Mr. Crozer is the first American hound-man whom 
we have heard admit that the work of his hounds is slow. He says that 
" any cur can run a breast-high scent." If by that, Mr. Crozer means that 
the American hound is the only hound that can hunt a cold line in the 
manner admired by him, it might be suggested that many an English hound 
is drafted for just this slow, line-hunting, dwelling method of procedure. 
As has been said in the introductory chapter, "What is the use?" 

Crosses with English hounds have been tried, but have been found un- 
satisfactory, and at present Mr. Crozer has in his kennels twenty couples of 
typical American hounds, most of them descended from family hounds, though 
some few have been obtained from Delaware and Maryland. Mr. Crozer 
has had good luck with his puppies, and most of the pack are home-bred. 

Foxes are on the increase in the country and the hunting during the recent 
seasons has been exceptionally good ; only two blank days having occurred 
during the winter of 1 907. One of the most brilliant runs in the history of 
the Hunt occurred during this season (1907) when hounds found a cold 
line on the Master's own estate, worked it up, found their fox, and drove 
him in a fify-mile circle, putting him to ground within a quarter of a mile of 
the kennels. The M. F. H. himself vouches for the authenticity of this run; 
certainly an excellent day's work, but it tends to prove, it would seem, that the 

178 





-^i^ If ■ l 



% 



'«^ 




THE UPLAND 

speed of American hounds has been greatly exaggerated by some of their ad- 
mirers, or else that "Mister Charley" was a very, very long way ahead 
throughout the run. Given a fair start, the fox is not whelped that can live in 
front of English hounds for fifty miles. He would either go to ground, or 
they would kill him, or scent would fail and they would lose his line. Such 
a run as Mr. Crozer describes is certainly, however, a great tribute to the 
nose of the American foxhound. 

As to the type of horse best suited to the country, which is just rolling 
enough to make it interesting and good for horses, with big, stiff post-and- 
rails and practically no wire, Mr. Crozer has the following to say : — "I am 
in favor of a well-mannered thoroughbred. We have long days and cover 
a lot of country, and I have found, personally, that thoroughbreds can pack 
my weight and go the long distances, at a fair speed, easier than half-breds, 
and when they get going mile after mile, at a good clip, I l^now that they can. 
Most of the men, however, hunt half-breds, or worse, and stay pretty well 
up." 

The landowners for miles around are good, old-fashioned farmers, "an 
exceedingly pleasant set of men, all of whom love to see a good hunt, and 
many of whom join in with us. We are welcome on their land summer 
and winter." 

Mr. Crozer, who is a great lover of sport with gun and bird-dog, as well 
as with horse and hound, spends much of his time in v^anter at Thomasville, 
Georgia, and sometimes takes the Upland pack, — which is now his private 
property, — down there for some fox-hunting. As a rule, however, the club- 
house at Upland is kept opened and hounds hunt regularly throughout the 
season. 



179 



The Warrenton Hunt 

DISTINCTIVE COLLAR - ---- White 

MASTER - T. Lee Evans, Esq. 

SECRETARY — F. R. Satterlee, Esq., Warrenton, Va. 

HON. HUNTSMAN Fleet Galloway, Esq. 

HOUNDS 1 couples, American 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Warrenton, Va. 

DAYS OF MEETING - Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON - - October 1st to April 1st 

WARRENTON, Virginia. The two words are almost synony- 
mous with horse and hound to the ears of any hunting man 
in America; and to many they recall good days of sport in 
the saddle — either following the Wanenton drag, or hunting foxes with the 
private pack of Mr. James K. Maddux, which has already been spoken of 
in another chapter. 

The Warrenton Hunt, proper, was first incorporated in 1 889, about the 
time that Mr. Maddux began to keep a pack of his own, and although 
the private pack of Austen Blackwell, Esq., was used for the drag, Mr. 
Maddux was honored by being elected to the Mastership of the new Hunt. 
Mr. Blackwell's hounds had come down in his family from generation to gen- 
eration for a number of years and were quite a noted strain, having hunted 
foxes in the vicinity of Warrenton for a great many years, and it seemed in 
many ways rather a pity to degrade them to the drag, this being the man- 
ner in which cross-country sport was followed by the new club. However, 
that was the vote of the majority, and it was followed. At first the Fields 
were small and the sport was carried on in rather a haphazard sort of man- 
ner, but as time went on and new people settled about Warrenton, interest 
grew, and today the Warrenton " drag " is as well known as any in the 
country. 

leo 




/ 



^' 



F. A. B. POETMAN, ESQ., LATE M.F.H 



THE WARRENTON 

There is rarely a meet now-a-days that does not see at least one visitor 
from some other Hunt out; and a goodly number of northern hunting 
men and women go there with their horses for some of the winter months, 
making Warrenton one of the hunting centres of the south. One can hunt 
foxes with Mr. Maddux's pack, or the drag with the Warrenton, while the 
Orange County, the Middlesex, the Piedmont, and Mr. Okie's, all of them 
foxhound packs, are within thirty miles, so that by driving or hacking a bit, 
the best packs of Virginia, — or one might almost say of the United States, 
— are available. 

The country is peculiarly adapted to the sport, being of a rolling nature 
with large enclosures, little plough, and firm blue-grass sod, while the fences 
probably embrace a wider variety than in any other Hunt, being post-and- 
rail, snake fences, stone walls, plank or slat fences, a few hedges, stake-and- 
bound rails, with often a gate or bars in a line of wire. It requires a clever 
and well schooled hunter to follow in the first flight over some of the biggest 
lines, for many of the fences are in the neighborhood of five feet, often over, 
and practically unbreakable. The streams and ditches are seldom nego- 
tiated, as the banks are treacherous as a rule and very dangerous. 

The Club has not a large membership and the resources are small com- 
pared with other Hunts, so that the office of Master is an arduous one. Of 
the many good sportsmen who have hunted the hounds, Mr. F. A. B. 
Portman was undoubtedly the most popular Master, being a man of gentle dis- 
position, of iron nerve, and a sportsman to the core. His death in 1 907, at the 
age of forty, was deeply felt by all hunting men of this section and many who 
had ridden behind him in the field from nearly every Hunt in the country. 

Other gentlemen who have carried the horn for the Warrenton Hunt 
and their terms in office are Mr. James K. Maddux, 1889 to 1894; Mr. 
N. B. Bevan, 1895 and '96; Mr. J. D. Hooe and Mr. Bevan again, 1896 
and '97; Mr. A. B. Dundas, 1897 and '98; Mr. F. L. W. Barker, 1898 
and "99; Mr. F. A. B. Portman, 1899 to 1903; Mr. U. D. Benner, 1903 
to 1905; Mr. Maddux again in 1905 and *06; Mr. Portman again until 
his death, in 1 907, and the present Master, Mr. T. Lee Evans, — a hard- 
riding sportsman, who believes in stiff timber; the higher the better. 

161 



THE WARRENTON 

The number of couples of hounds kept varies, and both English and 
American have been tried, the latter with more success, though in the 
opinion of some of the members the best pack the club owned was one 
descended from English hounds crossed on the American breed. Many 
of the most noted hunters in the country have received their education wath 
these hounds. There is probably not a hunt in the east in which Warrenton 
is not represented by one or more good horses and many have been taken 
to England; prominent among these being " Becky Sharp," who carried Mr. 
Foxhall Keene so well over the Leicestershire countries; " Guidon," who 
was owned by Mr. F. Ambrose Clark, and " Dolphin," who belonged to 
Mr. Mitchell Harrison, 

Hunting in Warrenton is a social feature, the runs being largely attended 
by interested onlookers, there being often from twenty to fifty carriages 
following on the roads, while the Fields vary from twelve to thirty-five. A 
number of ladies hunt regularly and the whole Field turns out well, the 
mounts being of the best. 

The Club races each year are one of the events of the season and are 
attended by a local crowd of several thousand, with a large sprinkling of 
visitors from other sections, and a horse that carries off the cup in any of 
the races has proved himself able to cross most countries with credit. 



162 



The Watchung Hunt 

DISTINCTIVE COLLAR ~~ - _ _. Green 

EVENING DRESS — ScaHet coat, green collar and facings 

MASTEIR - - - — Lewis E. Waring, Esq. 

SECRETARY -.- Harvey Fisk, Esq., New York. N. Y. 

HUNTSMAN - - ~ Chris. Comins 

HOUNDS - — - 18 1-2 couples. English 

KENNELS AND POST-OFFICE Plainfield. N. J. 

DAYS OF MEETING Wednesday and Saturday, and all holidays 

LENGTH OF SEASON -- October 1st to April 15th 

IT has been said that the northern part of Middlesex County, New 
Jersey, is an undiscovered country ; but this will hold true very little 
longer, as now that the Watchung Hunt has located its headquarters 
there, the country is bound to settle up rapidly. 

In some respects the country reminds one of the Midlands of England ; 
and Progress in its onward march has not yet laid its ruthless hand on the 
wild, beautiful and picturesque landscape. There are many good open 
fields, enclosed by stiff post-and-rail fences; but, — alas, for those who 
would like to see more real fox-hunting, — there are also acres of wild, im- 
penetrable thickets, which, while they provide natural cover for the foxes, 
are not conducive to the best results for the fox-hunter. At any rate, it has 
been found very difficult to get much sport in that way, and although the 
members of the Hunt are all very keen for this branch of the sport, the 
prospects for the future are poor. 

The Watchung Hunt was started in 1 902, by Dr. Middleton O'Malley 
Knott, of Plainfield, New Jersey, who first conceived the idea of establishing 
a pack of draghounds. During the first season, he had but few supporters, 
but in 1903 interest became more general, and the result was the holding 

183 



THE WATCHUNG 

of the first horse. show in Plainfield, by the Riding and Driving Club, which 
was an unqualified success. Hunters and other high-class horses came into 
immediate favor, and many people were brought together who, before that 
time, had hardly realized that they were horse-lovers. 

Two years later, the Hunt was incorporated, and has steadily grown, 
until now it is a flourishing organization of over one hundred members, and 
has leased a property just outside the city limits, where the Club has forty 
acres of ground, a large, comfortable house, ample stabling for thirty horses, 
and a good half-mile track. It is also their intention to lay out, in the future, 
a steeplechase course on the property, which vnW be a natural one, all the 
obstacles being post-and-rail fences, ditches, and stone walls; and it is pro- 
posed to hold hereafter their annual spring and fall race meetings over this 
course. A schooling-ground for green hunters will also be laid out. 

To return to the history of the Hunt ; the Master writes as follows : 

" When the Club was first started, we had only a few couples of small 
American hounds. Later, a draft of English hounds was bought, but they 
proved a disappointment, as they did not seem to hunt with keenness and 
snap, and gave very little music. These hounds were of an inferior quality, 
which undoubtedly accounts for their being so unsatisfactory." In the spring 
of 1 906 the Watchung imported from the pack of Aubrey Wallace, Esq., 
of Brisbane Castle, Millstreet, County Cork, Ire., a draft of black and tan 
Kerry Beagles, averaging about twenty-three inches in height. These hounds, 
known in Ireland as the " Millstreet " pack, are maintained and owned en- 
tirely by the Master, Mr. Wallace, who hunts both hares and foxes over a 
great part of the Duhallow country, having secured permission from its M. 
F. H. for that purpose. These Kerry Beagles have been maintained by 
Mr. Wallace's family since early in the seventeenth century. 

This draft gave general satisfaction to the Watchung members, being ex- 
tremely keen and showing the good manners and discipline of the English 
hound. The Club had these hounds until the summer of 1907, when it 
was decided, for the best interests of the Hunt, to remove the Club and 
kennels from Colonia, N. J., to Plainfield, N. J. The pack remained in 
Colonia with Mr. Charles D. Freeman (who was Master to the time of the 

184 



THE WATCHUNG 

removal to Plainfield) for several months, when they were sent to Millbrook, 
Dutchess County, N. Y., where they are now being hunted by Dr. O'Malley 
Knott, who has established a pack in that part of the country. In the late 
summer of 1 907, there was purchased a draft of twelve and one half couples 
from Lewis G. Young, Esq., M. F. H. of the Union County Draghounds, 
of which ten couples came from the Montreal and were brought in from 
Canada in the previous year by Mr. Young. These hounds are good-look- 
ing and have excellent bone and substance, being bred from the best blood 
obtainable in England. They were hunted during the fall and wanter of 
1 907 and proved most satisfactory, shoving the keenness and drive of the 
American hound, with the excellent manners and discipline of the English. 
They have been carefully looked after since they came into the possession 
of the Hunt by Chris. Comms, the huntsman, who deserves great credit for 
their physical condition and manners. 

Early in 1 908, two public-spirited members, Messrs. E. F. Hooley and 
Harvey Fisk, bought a small draft from the Middlesex and presented them 
to the Hunt. This draft, though small, was very high in quality, containing 
among others, the well known Champion " Vaulter " and several very good 
brood bitches, whose blood should make a noticeable improvement in the 
pack. With such members as Messrs. Hooley and Fisk, who seem to 
take a strong interest in the welfare of the pack, and a young and enthusiastic 
Master, the Watchung is certainly going about putting its pack on a level 
with the best in the country and getting good foxhound blood instead of 
wasting time and money over a lot of nondescript draghounds and taking no 
pains as to their breeding or care. 

It is regrettable that there are some Masters in America who think that 
anything is good enough for a "dog" and that so long as six or eight couples 
of " dogs " turn up at a meet and babble on a drag that they have a pack 
worthy of their Hunt. 

For the past three years, the annual race meeting has been held on 
Decoration Day and the second day preceding it, and there have been 
gathered together at these meetings the best cross-country horses throughout 
New Jersey and Long Island. These annual affairs have been very success- 

185 



THE WATCHUNG 

ful and have done much toward retaining the good-will of the farmers, as 
several races for them are held and on the holiday they are the guests 
of the Hunt at the annual dinner. 



186 



The Westchester County Hunt 

DISTINCTIVE UNIFORM - Green coat, yellow collar 

EVENING DRESS Green coat, yellow collar and facings 

MASTER E. S. Reynal. Esq. 

SECRETARY Julian Day. Esq., New York, N. Y. 

HUNTSMAN - _... _ The Master 

KENNEL HUNTSMAN - J. C. Lidster 

HON. WHIPPER-IN - Fletcher Harper, Esq. 

HOUNDS - - - - _ I 5 couples, English 

POST-OFFICE AND KENNELS White Plains, N. Y. 

DAYS OF MEETING Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 

LENGTH OF SEASON j September 15th to January 15th. 

( and six weeks in spring 

THE Westchester County Hunt was founded under the title of the 
"Country Club Harriers "in the summer of 1 886, and at that time 
Mr. F. O. Beach was Master. They were the first pack to be 
established in Westchester County, although in 1881 and 1 882 the Queens 
County Draghounds, with Mr. F. Gray Griswold as Master, tried the coun- 
try with a view to making a permanent slay, having their kennels at the 
" Castle " in New Rochelle. 

As we have seen in the history of the Meadow Brook Hunt, Mr. Gris- 
wold did not find that portion of the Westchester country which he hunted 
to his liking, but the seed of sport which he had sown had taken root, and 
eventually, through the generosity of Mr J. M. Waterbury, President of the 
then new Country Club, a pack of harriers was imported from England. 
Mr. Beach hunted this pack for one year, showing good sport, and turned 
them over to Mr. H. N. Potter in the spring of 1887. The country at this 
time was limited in area, the kennels being at the wrong end of the county, 

187 



THE WESTCHESTER 

and after a Committee and Mr. Pelham-Clinton had carried the harriers 
through the season of 1 888, hounds and horses were sold and raffled, and 
the Hunt re-organized as the Westchester Hunt, with Mr. T. A. Havemeyer 
as Master and a new pack with kennels at White Plains. For the follow- 
ing ten seasons, the hounds continued to hunt from White Plains until Mr. 
Havemeyer resigned in 1 895 and Mr. N. C. Reynal was elected in his place. 

Mr. R. F. Todd and Mr. W. E. Iselin followed Mr. Reynal, each of 
them remaining in office for one season only, when Mr. E. S. Reynal was 
elected and served until 1 90 1 . The younger Mr. Reynal began his Mas- 
tership by disposing of the harriers and substituting a pack of English fox- 
hounds, and this proving on the whole a satisfactory change, the Hunt has 
continued to keep the same type of hound ever since. 

Mr. Reynal resigned in 1901, being followed by Mr. Howard Willets, 
who remained in office one season, resigning in 1 902 in favour of Mr. Louis 
Fitzgerald, who carried the horn to the satisfaction of everyone until his 
tragic death in 1905, when Mr. Reynal was again persuaded to fill the 
office which he has ever since retained. Various drafts from the Pytchley, 
and from the Middlesex, have recruited the Westchester pack from time to 
time, and the quality of the hounds has steadily improved during the second 
Mastership of Mr. Reynal until at present there are about fifteen couples of 
very level, good-looking hounds in the Westchester kennels. 

In 1906, Messrs. Reynal and Potter purchased the Clinchy farm, 
about three miles northeast of White Plains, and fitted up the farmhouse for 
a club. On June 1 st of that year the Hunt was re-organized under the new 
title of " Westchester County Hunt," and taking a ten-year lease with pur- 
chase privileges, moved the hounds into their present kennels. 

The country lies north of a line drawn from Mamaroneck to White Plains, 
with the Harlem Division of the New York Central R. R. bounding it east 
and west, and extending north into Fairfield County, Connecticut. Its char- 
acter is varied, requiring much jumping, as the enclosures are cramped, with 
fences not always as small as one might wish. There are few rail fences; 
perhaps one in a run, stone walls being the rule, and as there is breadth 
as well as height to be cleared, a bold, fast jumper is the horse needed. 

188 




EUGENE S. REYNAL, ESQ., M.F.H. SECOND MASTERSHIP 1905- 



THE WESTCHESTER 

Westchester County is distinctly a grass country, and except for dairy pur- 
poses the soil is not, at present prices, adaptable for farm cultivation, so that 
hay is a fairly common crop, and there is little plough to disturb the gallop- 
ing. In the early spring the going is heavy, but is first-rate in April — as a 
rule better than in October. 

Foxes are hunted as an off-day amusement, the country to the north be- 
ing full of them ; but they are wild and hard to kill. The drag, usually 
laid three times a week during the season, is rarely less than seven or more 
than twelve miles in length. 

The farmers are, on the whole, favorable to hunting, the character of the 
fences making damages small, and the avoidance of newly laid down fields 
being the principal care on the part of the Master. 



169 



The White Marsh Valley Hunt 

DISTINCTIVE UNIFORM Green coat, scarlet collar 

EVENING DRESS Scarlet coat, green facings 

MASTER - - Welsh Strawbridge. Esq. 

SECRETARY Thomas Stokes. Esq.. Philadelphia. Pa. 

HON. HUNTSMAN - James G. Leiper, Jr.. Esq. 

HON. WHIPPERS-IN - \ '''• Walter Stokes, Esq. 

( 2nd, Edwcird N. Benson, Jr., Esq. 

HOUNDS 1 2 couples, half-bred English and American 

KENNELS "Erdenheim," White Marsh Valley Township, Pa. 

FIAILWAY STATION .- -Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. Pa. 

POST-OFFICE Flourtown. Pa. 

DAYS OF MEETING - Wednesday and Saturday, and all holidays 

LENGTH OF SEASON October 1st to April 1st 

ALTHOUGH the White Marsh Valley Hunt was not founded 
until 1 903, by the Messrs. Edward D. Toland, Thomas Stokes, 
James G. Leiper. Jr., R. H. Johnson, Jr., and Welsh Strawbridge, 
the fathers of several of these gentlemen had run paper-chases in that part 
of the country for some years, and the interest in cross-country riding, having 
been handed down to the present generation, had never entirely died out, so 
that as these gentlemen grew up and began to ride, they in their turn kept 
up the paper-chases in a desultory sort of way. The runs became more 
frequent and their devotees increased ; until presently, as is often the case, 
came the taste for hounds, and in 1 903 a few couples were bought. The 
natural advantages of the country, which is level and largely used for graz- 
ing purposes, were all favorable, and as soon as the residents of the White 
Marsh Valley found how much pleasure could be derived from riding to 
hounds, they all joined in with a will and the Club was soon formed. 

190 




GOING TO COVER 




Cipyrlghleil by J. E. Green. Cliesler. P<i. 



THE WHITE MARSH VALLEY 

In the second season, Mr. Welsh Strawbridge, who had been elected 
Master at the start, bought a small draft of English hounds, but found that 
these ran almost mute on the drag, as they often do. Accordingly, he be- 
gan to cross them with the native hounds, and found that the animals so 
produced were, on the whole, more satisfactory for the purpose for which 
they were needed. At present, Mr. Strawbridge has twelve couples of 
hounds in his kennels, most of them bred along the lines indicated above, 
some few drafted from the neighboring Hunts and a few from Dr. A. C. 
Heffenger's pack, — the Portsmouth. 

The White Marsh Valley Hunt developed slowly, in this manner, up to 
the season of 1 907 ; when, its Fields having grown in numbers and enthu- 
siasm, the members began to yearn for the "real thing." The Master was 
only too ready, and during the autumn of 1907 a small pack was kept ex- 
clusively for fox-hunting. The country is nearly perfect for the sport, the 
coverts being small and scattered widely, and the open country between 
quite ideal for riding purposes, being mainly a grazing country, and the land- 
owners, a very good class and fond of sport, keepmg their farms and fences 
in the best of condition. Wire has not, as yet, crept into the country at all 
and the fences are almost entirely old post-and-rails, large and stiff, but with 
clean take-off and landing. 

Foxes are none too plentiful, but many have been planted and as they 
have thriven well, there seems to be no reason why fox-huntmg should not 
be firmly established and excellent sport obtained in a short time. The hunts- 
man, Mr. James G. Leiper, Jr., is a keen sportsman and may be depended 
upon to do all he can toward attaining the best results. 

The Hunt now has a commodious clubhouse, stables and kennels, and 
visitors are always most welcome. Most of the members have a strong lean- 
ing toward the thoroughbred when it comes to a question of mounts, although 
there is a small percentage of cocktails generally to be seen. 



191 



The Goose with the Golden Eggs 



The Goose with the Golden Eggs 

A Poem by J. L. R., published in " The History of the Meynell Hounds and Country," 
With an Envoi by A. H. H. 

We lamed the nags, we maimed the men, we rolled them in the mire. 

We killed the goose with golden eggs with thrice-accursed wire. 
{An old farmer dozes before the fire) 
Can it really be November ? Can winter have begun ? 
There's the usual loss of verdure, and the absence of the sun ! 
Oh yes, there are the common signs ! But one, I find, we lack — 
The huntsman's horn, the cheering cry, the music of the pack. 
Oh, dull and drear's the time of year when nothing gives relief 
From the settled gloom which follows the falling of the leaf ! 

Who lamed the nags, and maimed the men, and rolled them in the mire ? 

We killed the goose vsath golden eggs v^ath thrice-accursed wire. 

Oh, what were trampled pastures, and, oh, what was damaged wheat, 
Or poultry raised and fattened which the foxes used to eat? 
Oh, what were broken fences, what was stock all gone astray ? 
Great houses bought our produce then, great stables used our hay. 
There was stir and animation, the country-side was gay 
With all the pomp and glitter and pride of a hunting day ! 

Who mangled them, and tangled them, and rolled them in the mire ? 

We killed the goose wdth golden eggs v^th thrice-accursed wire. 

The halls are all deserted now where gentry used to be, 
There's no one left but t' doctor, and t' rector, and Hodge, and me ; 
There's no one rides about the land, and I miss the friendly nod 
I got on hunting mornings, though the horse hoofs cut the sod. 
Though many's the time I've grumbled, yet now I should rejoice 
To see a smiling countenance and hear a cheery voice. 

Who lamed the nags, and maimed the men, and rolled them in the mire ? 

We killed the goose v^th golden eggs with thrice-accursed wire. 

195 



THE GOOSE WITH THE GOLDEN EGGS 

There are tons of hay uneaten and lying in the mow ; 

Is the meadow grass worth cutting at the price it fetches now ? 

The towns are full of loafing men who used to earn their bread. 

All idle since we farmers knocked fox-hunting on the head. 

The blacksmith's in the workhouse, and the saddler's ruined, too ; 

We little thought all this would come of what we meant to do, 

Who lamed the nags, and maimed the men, and rolled them in the mire. 
And killed the goose with golden eggs with thrice-accursed wire. 

The whippers-in are in " the House," the huntsman's breaking stones. 
The doctor's lost the goodly job of setting sportsmen's bones. 
While us as stays must pay the rates — there's no one else to pay — 
It's twice as hard upon the rest now they have gone away. 
And Parson says there's no one now to help the poor in need. 
Dal ! All the World looks black at us — the men as done the deed, 

As lamed the nags, and maimed the men, and rolled them in the mire. 

And killed the goose with golden eggs with thrice-accursed wire. 

The Shires are quite a desert now the Quality has fled ; 

Their homes are still and silent as the dwellings of the dead. 

There seems a blight upon the land ; accursed be the day 

That spoilt their sport, that robbed the land, and drove their wealth away 

When the gold they spent with us went with them across the sea. 

Ah, well, t'was our own doing ; that's as plain as plain can be. 

Who lamed the nags and maimed the men, and rolled them in the mire. 

And killed the goose with golden eggs with thrice-accursed wire. 

Where are those stalwart riders ? Where those forms of winsome grace ? 

Gone ? Ay, and gone forever ! Who will fill the vacant place ? 

They're off to Pau and Zanzibar, to Paris and Peru, 

To Nice and California ; there was nothing else to do. 

You can't expect a sporting race to stay when sport is dead ; 

They've taken flight, and with them, too, Prosperity has fled. 

IVe mangled them, and tangled them, and rolled them in the mire, 
And killed the goose with golden eggs with thrice-accursed write. 

1% 



THE GOOSE WITH THE GOLDEN EGGS 

{His wife rouses him) 
What's that you say ? " It's dinner time " ! Did I doze in my chair ? 
My word ! I've had an awful dream — a regular nightmare. 
I dreamt — well, never mind, old girl — I hear the huntsman's horn — 
There — see the pack come streaming out and right across our com ! 
What's that you say ? Put wire up ? Someone might get a fall : 
I'd rather they'd ruin every crop than seem so mean and small ; 

/ mangle them, and tangle them, and roll them in the mire ? 

No ! ril not kill the goose with golden eggs — I'll take down all my wire ! 



197 



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